MFing TT
by y1fellas
Summary: To continue their war against the Elemerians the Twintail Warriors have to take their battle to space! Their are countless other worlds threatened by the aliens and even some unknown threats brewing on Earth. This is a multi arc story that continues from directly where the anime left off. I started writing this before I read any of the light novels, so it diverges from canon a lot.
1. 01 The Proposal

**AN: I liked the anime series, and I would like to read the light novels, but as of publishing there is no english translation available. Apparently there **_**was**_ **a fan translation up to volume 6, but that was taken down before I could read it past volume 1. Just checked. Apparently there are 17 light novels in all, with no Enlish translation in sight. Thus, here we go: Continuing off from where the anime ended, with no clue where the light novels lead.**

Unusually, Souji was having a very ordinary day. This might sound like something of an oxymoron, but only without context. It was unusual because every day for the last few months, Souji had been made to fight Elemerians to protect the earth's attributes from falling into the hands of evil.

Until that ordinary day, his daily schedule would have been something like this:

In the morning, he would be awoken by his longtime friend, Aika Tsube, and go to school together with her like any stereotypical pair of childhood friends. At some point during the day aliens would attempt to invade somewhere on earth, and one or more members of the Twintail Club would be dispatched to defeat them via their space jump catapult, which was effectively a teleporter. With that done, they would return to school, and go about the rest of their day indistinguishable from any ordinary student.

But that day, and the day before, there had been no invaders. The Elemerians, at least for the moment, had left the world and gone to deal with other problems elsewhere. It would have been a relief, if they weren't already so used to the attacks as part of their routine. Souji could tell that Aika in particular was feeling quite antsy. During classes she kept checking her wrist and glaring out the window suspiciously, a behaviour which was noticed by their other classmates. She already had a reputation for being pretty short tempered, so they were all inclined to leave her alone.

That was probably for the best. Without any gildy's around she didn't have as many ways to relieve her pent up aggression. _I might need to do something about that before someone gets hurt…_

And by someone he of course meant Twoearle. She was a human from another world, or at least something very similar to a human, that had a bad habit of teasing Aika and was thus, consistently on the receiving end of vicious beatdowns. He'd never known Aika to show much restraint in the past, and overtime he had noticed her using more and more dangerous techniques, so these days there was a pretty serious risk their friend from another world wouldn't survive a bad encounter. So far it seemed like Twoearle had noticed Aika's shortened fuse as well, and had wisely left her alone. At least so far, though he kinda doubted she could keep her mouth shut indefinitely. Despite being a mad scientist super genius, Twoearle was something of an idiot.

"Um…Twoearle?" You might be forgiven for mistaking the speaker with a particularly short middle schooler that somehow snuck into Yougetsu Academy. She was in fact a senior at the school and her name was Shindo Erina. The first thing anyone might notice about her was just how small she was, but the first thing Souji ever noticed about her was her beautiful blonde twintails that stretched down almost to her knees. _Oh, what lovely twintails they are… _

Erina continued in the absence of interruption. "I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been wondering, but… we haven't been attacked in a while, so… What are we supposed to do now?"

If someone struggled to believe Erina was a highschooler because she looked too young, they'd struggle to believe Twoearel was a highschooler because she looked far too mature. Souji thought her boobs were ridiculous. Her silver grey hair didn't help either. Honestly, he didn't even know her real age. She was from another world, and it's not like she brought valid ID or anything. Either way, she was somehow allowed to attend the same school as everyone else, but Souji was pretty sure that was because she could hypnotize people.

"Yes, it's mostly a good thing." Twoearle agreed. "With the extra breathing room I can start working on a few projects I've had in mind for a while now. Which is actually what I wanted to talk to you about today. I have a proposal."

"A proposal?" Aika sounded suspicious. "Like what?"

"Oh, you know. Traditional service, with a white dress and a small number of people invited. I was thinking church, but-"  
The sound of a chair loudly scraping against the floor interrupted her, as Aika stood up suddenly.

"Of course you were going to be invited!" Twoearle started sweating, as Aika stomped around the table angrily. "Obviously, Souji would need his best man there and I can get you a great discount on tuxedo's from-"

The force of the blow to her face rattled the shelves, and Souji winced subconsciously. He felt that thump in his chest from across the room, and he wasn't even the one hit!

"Hmf." Aika kicked Twoearle one more time while she was down, before taking her seat again. "Are you just going to keep wasting our time?"

_Hey, I don't think you can really say that when you're the one who knocked her out..._

A few minutes later Twoearle continued, wincing as she pressed a fresh ice pack to her face. "As I was saying before I was violently interrupted-"

"I can interrupt you again in a minute!" Aika warned.

"Aika, just let her speak." Souji tried to keep his tone gentle, but exasperation must have crept in because she still gave him an annoyed look. At least she didn't add anything else. Then he turned back to Twoearle. "You should know better than to provoke Aika." He warned her.

"Eh-heh-heh." She laughed nervously, before trying again. "We've done enough damage to Ultimagil that for now they're going to go after some softer targets, rethink their strategy, and then come at us again later."

"That means we're gonna need to get a lot stronger, right?" Aika pondered. "Or maybe fortify, somehow…"

"While we definitely need to do both of those things if possible, those are only temporary solutions to our problem." Twoearle's voice took on lecturing tone. "There's an infinite number of worlds out there, on any one of which the Elemerian's could potentially find the strength to crush us here. Not to mention, every attack they make here has the potential of succeeding and undoing all our successes."

She was right. They'd had a large number of very close fought battles so far, any one of which could have ended in complete disaster. To keep the earth safe, the Twintail Warriors had to win every time, while the invaders only had to get lucky once.

"Are you saying we need to go on the offense?" Aikia frowned. "How? Do they have a homeworld?"

"No, not that I know of." Twoearle shook her head. "Plus attacking it with just the four of us would probably be completely hopeless."

Souji nodded in agreement. Defeating just one officer class was exhausting, let alone the even more adjutant's like Arachnegildy. He couldn't even imagine fighting a world of them and winning.

"Instead, I'm thinking we need to start recruiting." Twoearle reached into her generous cleavage, and took out what looked like an ordinary set of car keys attached to a fluffy pink ball. "I still have the spaceship I used to come here."

"Are you talking about a universe of twintail warriors?!" Souji stood up in excitement, pushing his chair out as he did.

At the same time Erina excitedly added in her small voice. "Like a superhero crossover?"

"Yeah, pretty much exactly."

The voice of skepticism spoke again. "Why don't we just recruit here on earth?" _Come on, Aika! Can't you see how cool this is?! _Souji thought it was just like Aika to look for the boring side of everything.

"We don't have any more pure Twintail attribute." Twoearle pointed out. "I can't make more tailsuits without it."

"How will going to other worlds fix that problem?" Erina's voice became uncertain. "We're not going to steal attributes from them, are we?" Clear disapproval crept into her tone.

"No, no, no!" Twoearle quickly shook her head. "Absolutely not. I want to fight the Ultimaguil to stop other worlds from suffering the same fate mine did. Becoming what they are would defeat the purpose. My idea is Soji will do for another world, what I did for this world."

"I don't follow." Aika's brows came together in confusion.

"For a while now, the Elemerians have been using a seeding strategy, where they pretend to leak a tailsuit to a selected warrior from that world's local population, and then lose a number of battles to that warrior so as to make them appear a hero. This will inspire people all across the world to love twintails as well, so that when the Elemerians then crush them with an officer class guildy and a vast swarm of lesser Ultiroids, they can then harvest a greater amount of precious twintail attribute."

Ah, just the thought of it made Souji angry. Someone with a sincere love of twintails being puppeted in such a way, and then discarded with everything they treasured stolen from them. It was the fate that awaited him, or Aika, or whoever else the aliens chose to be their patsy if Twoearle hadn't arrived ahead of them.

It was easy to imagine his childhood friend being defeated like that, and he found himself growing upset. Because he'd known her for so long and been exposed to them every day, he often forgot just how beautiful her straight black twintails were. She put so much work in to caring for them! They might have even stolen her karate girl attribute! _Pretty sure that's a thing._ Who would she be without even that? Really just a grumpy, rude, manly girl. With no boobs at all, either. Who eats way too much.

Geeze, without the motivation to exercise, she'd be as fat as American in just a few months. It would just be too sad.

She noticed him staring at her, and regarded Soji suspiciously. "I know you're thinking something bad about me."

He was reminded just how well she knew him, and felt a prickle of sweat on the back of his neck. Her punches were getting really hard lately, she was forgetting how to hold back.

Souji turned back to Twoearle quickly. "If we interrupt their plans on other worlds by saving those Twintail warriors, we can save those worlds, stop them getting more Elemera, and expand our numbers all at the same time!"

"That sounds great. Couldn't we have done this sooner?" Erina asked, a hint of excitement entering her voice.

"The problem is a journey to another world could take more than a month." Twoearle shrugged. "We just never had the time before. Now we have breathing room, and some spare Twintail Warriors so we can protect the earth while one of us makes the journey. Once we get to our destination, I can build a gateway so we can reconnect with the team back here on Earth instantly. It will add the new twintail to our forces to protect our world, while we add their world to the places we can defend from Elemerians. Which is probably a good deal for them, too."

"And it would be a great chance to see other great twintails!" Souji was pumped. "I'm in, this sounds great!"

"Okay, hold on one second!" Aika stood up, and they all looked to her. She kept her gaze locked on Twoearle and stated flatly. "I'm gonna assume that _you _need to pilot the spaceship?"

"I certainly can't imagine a barbarian like you learning literal rocket science anytime soon, so yes." She gave a superior smirk. _Damn it, Twirl, stop. If Aika gets you in another armlock, I won't be able to pull her off you!_

"And you're going to need one of us to go with you, right?" Aika crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Twoearle. "Two of us will need to stay here in case the Elemerians come back, and one of us will go with you to keep you safe and help the other world's tail warrior, right?"

"Exactly." Twoearle grinned and her eyes kept glancing towards Souji but stayed facing Aika. "And I'm sure your next question will be who goes and who stays, right?"

"Somehow I have a hunch who you think that should be."

"Eh-he-heh. Whaaaat? I have no idea what you mean, but I'm sure we can talk this through and come to the most reasonable outcome." Twoearle looked to the sophomore. "Erina, given your family situation, and the enormous pressure placed on you to succeed socially, do you think you'll be able to convince your mother to let you leave under dubious reasons for a month or more?"

"Oh, definitely not." She shook her head vigorously. "Just asking might get me in trouble."

"Mmhm. What a shame." Twoearle said without a hint of sincerity. "And Aika, what about you? Don't you have a strict regime of karate to keep up with? And like, a ton of raw meat to eat or something?"

Aika cracked her knuckles threateningly.

"B-b-but, seriously." Twoearle continued quickly. "What about your parents? And would you really be able to convince your grandfather to let you go for a month or more?"

Honestly, Aika's parents weren't that strict. Her grandfather would want her to continue training, obviously, but he trusted her enough to keep up with it on her own.

"For argument's sake, let's say I can't." Skepticism oozed off every word. "What would that mean?"

"Well, I'm sure Soji would have no trouble at all convincing his mother to let him go for the summer holidays. And I'll be sure to help him get his summer homework done." Drool started to creep down from the corner of her mouth. "Eh-heh-heh. And I can teach him to drive _stick_."

"You stupid horny-"

"It sounds great to me!" Souji smiled at Aika brightly. "My mom will definitely be a lot easier to convince than yours." Images of beautiful, exotic, alien twintails ran through his mind on a loop and he clenched his fists with excitement. "I'm super pumped."

"So that's settled, then!" Twoearle rubbed her hands together eagerly. "Aika and Erina will stay here on earth, while Souji and I go for _a month long love in_~!"

"Except that's not what's going to happen!" Aika raised her voice in anger, a large vein twitching on the side of her head.

"Why not?" Souji asked, disappointment creeping into his voice.

"There's one thing you haven't considered, Twoearle." Aika growled. "Two things, actually."

"And, uh, what are those?" Twoearle swallowed nervously, backing away a step. Souji could see her hand reaching for a remote shaped bulge in her pocket, _probably to summon another anti-Aika bot, not that it would help her much..._

"First of all!" Aika raised her index finger. "If you think for a second that I'd let you spend a month alone in space with Souji, you've got another thing coming. Secondly, and more importantly, Souji can't leave Earth. He's our strongest warrior."

That brought everyone's excitement up short, and Souji frowned as he considered her argument.

"If Souji leaves earth, and another Elemerian as strong as Arachnegildy shows up, there'd be nothing I or Erina could do to stop them." Her lips twitched downward with annoyance at the admission. "Him leaving is too big of a risk. Honestly, it seems risky for even one of us to leave."

A look of consideration came over Twoearle's face, followed by one of disappointment that Souji matched. "Oh."

Yeah. '_Oh.'_

He sat down heavily, and sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You're right, Aika."

She saw the look on my face, and smiled apologetically. "We can't risk everything by having you leave, Soji. I'm sorry."

"Then who goes with Twoearle?" Erina asked, looking between us.

"It's gonna have to be me." Aika shook her head sadly, and looked back to Twoearle. "Unless you have a way to make us a lot stronger very suddenly?"

The shake of Twoearle's head was slow and dejected. "Nooooo…" She groaned, sinking into her chair and putting her head the crook of her elbow while banging her fist against the table. "Oh, nooooooo. Not a month alone with the barbarian… Space travel is _soooooo _boring!"

_Oof. _That was a new worry. Would Twoearle even _survive _a month alone with Aika?

Souji looked at his childhood friend, who was tapping a finger against one arm in agitation while a thick vein throbbed on her head.

* * *

Meanwhile, on another world much like Earth, a camera looked down from far above as a young girl with Twintails stepped out of the passenger seat of an expensive black car, just one block away from her school. She aggressively ignored the glares people gave her, while blissfully unaware of the sinister eyes that watched her every move.

She was identical to a human in almost every way, with only two major differences: The long thin tail that hung from her waist down to her ankles, and the pair of cat ears sitting atop her head. Neither of them were fake. They were organic and completely natural on this world. Every single person she passed on the street shared the same traits. That wasn't what drew their ire.

You see, the people of Nyapon were incredibly conservative in their views on hair. Everyone there wore it short, or in a traditional long ponytail. Anything more than that was excessive and indecent in their minds, and any_one_ who violated this cultural taboo would inevitably draw the ire of their peers.

In aggressive defiance of this view, this fourteen year old girl with her nose turned up in the air as though she smelled something bad, sported a pair of twintails that had been heavily curled into a magnificent set of pink drilltails_._

"How indecent!" A passing mother spat, covering her young son's eyes, lest he be corrupted. "Don't look, Love."

"Hmph!" The fourteen year old girl brushed the right drill with her hand, shaking her head so as to set both magnificent tails swaying.

"Oh, my lord!" A grandmothers' eyes rolled up in her head, and she fainted from shock.

"Plebians!" The girl rolled her eyes as she called over her shoulder, before hurrying along to school.

"...She's _perfect._" A sinister voice hissed eagerly, while it watched all this happen through a screen. "Oh, I love snooty, rich, _bitchy princesses_." A clawed hand reached out to caress the monitor, as a pair of mandibles clicked together eagerly. "And I especially love seeing them _fall."_

Her name was Nakatomi Izaberra, or Isabella Nakatomi if you happen to be Ameowican, or Catnadian. Soon she would be known by another name.

Tail Pink.


	2. 02 The Ship

Erina had to go home right after the Twintail Club meeting, so it was just Souji, Aika, and Twoearle that rode the elevator down to the secret base that afternoon. There was always a disappointed look in Erina's eye whenever her home life dragged her away from Twintail business. Compared to her, Souji felt like he and Aika had it pretty easy.

The elevator door opened with a _ding_, and the three of them stepped out into the familiar command room. He honestly had no idea what the rows of consoles and monitors were even for, though Souji assumed Twoearle installed them for a reason. She only ever seemed to use them for monitoring the Twintail Warrior's battles or watching Netflix anyway.

She led them past the computers and behind the Space Jump Catapult, to a door with a handwritten sign on it that read, "Garage/hangar." From between her breasts, she withdrew that same keyring from earlier, and turned one of the keys in the lock. It opened with a click, and she stepped through into pitch darkness beyond.

Aika and Souji exchanged looks before following behind her. He could tell Aika was just as curious about Twoearle's spaceship as Souji was, though she was trying to hide it. The door closed behind them with a loud bang, and they both jumped as all light disappeared.

"Twoearle?" He asked aloud. His voice echoed back to him, giving the impression they were in a large space.

"One second." Twoearle's voice came from somewhere to their right. "I forgot where I put that damn lightswitch."

Aika and Souji both stood in silence for a while, waiting patiently and listening to the sound of her fumbling about and bumping into things. "Do you need help?" Aika asked just as he was starting to feel impatient too.

"No, it's somewhere on this wall." Twoearle reassured them.

"..." They waited for a little longer before Souji asked in Aika's general direction. "Hey, what do you think the ship will look like?"

She took a moment to answer. "I'd guess something that matches the tailsuits on the outside, but looks like the secret base on the inside."

"I bet it's like a flying saucer."

"No, it's probably powered by Attributes, like our suits are, so it has to have some kind of exhaust. It's probably more like a fighter jet."

"Found it!" Twoearle called out from the distance. "There we go!"

Bright, white light turned on over head suddenly, and Souji instinctively covered his eyes with a painful wince. It took awhile for his vision to adjust, but when he lowered his arms he found himself staring at what initially seemed like a white and grey, round disk. As he looked at it more closely, he saw that Aika was right about it needing exhaust points, and saw a pair of small, square shaped boosters of some kind on its back.

Twoearle came up behind them while they were looking, and pushed a button on her key.

The ship made a sound like an electric lock unlocking on a car, and some light from inside flashed. Then two triangle shaped wings unfolded from its central body, turning the vessel into something that looked like a mix of a fighter jet and flying saucer. It was larger than Souji's house, maybe the size of a small mansion.

Twoearle heaved a sigh as she looked at it. "It's made from an Elemerian frame, so I had to take all the black spikes and lightning generators off, which left it kind of round. I repainted it so it didn't look so badguy-ish."

"It doesn't look too bad." Souji nodded approvingly. "What's so wrong with it that you're so reluctant to use it? Is it uncomfortable?"

Twoearle rubbed at her eyes and pushed another button on her remote. What looked like a loading ramp folded out of the ships main body so they could enter. Instantly, Souji could see the black, ominous interior of the ship, with a ceiling so high you'd need a scissor lift to change a lightbulb. Everything was sharp corners and blind turns, with blinking red and purple lights in the walls that served some arcane purpose.

It really didn't look designed for humans, but at least it wasn't cramped? As they walked through it, he couldn't help but notice that everything seemed to be designed with an eight or nine feet tall user in mind, which made sense given its origin.

"Bedrooms, I don't have a mattress for you so we'll have to get that." Twoearle pointed out rooms as they went past. "Toilets, don't fall in." They were large enough for that to be possible. There was an out of place looking human sized step ladder to help whoever needed climb up to the bowl. "This is a training room, but I never used it." It looked like a very typical wood floored dojo to Souji, but with a small banner on the back wall sporting Kanji that said, 'Twintails!' "And this is the kitchen and larder, I haven't restocked yet."

Souji nudged Twoearle's shoulder to get her attention and tilted him head towards Aika. "Better pack three times as much for her."

"Oh, great." Twoearle wrinkled her nose. "I'm gonna have to share a toilet with the protein monster."

"Oy." Aika growled.

Twoearle pointed down a corridor. "Engineering and life support's that way, so don't go there." She gave Aika a look of careful consideration. "Actually, I'm just going to install a biometric lock so you can't get in."

Souji's old friend raised an eyebrow, but didn't object.

Finally Twoearle led them to a large room, with a massive bank of monitors on one wall and a pair of human sized chairs somewhat awkwardly bolted to the floor in the middle of the room. In front of them was a control panel. A human would have to stand up or stretch to reach every button. Souji could see the grooves in the floor where the larger Elemerian chairs had been removed.

"Got any dramas you wanna catch up on, Aika?" Twoearle grunted as she took one of the seats, and turned on the monitors. "Or movies or whatever?"

"Not really, why?"

"Because the one decent thing about this ship is the entertainment systems I installed. High definition, surround sound, and a massive library of stuff I pirated. So if you've got anything you want to watch, speak now or forever hold your peace."

"...I kinda like shonen anime." Aika shrugged at the look Souji gave her. "It's not like we won't have time for it. We could easily binge the entirety of Dragon Sphere, and Dragon Sphere X."

"Sounds good." Twoearle answered over her shoulder. "Send me anything else you can think of, because we're gonna have literally nothing else to do."

"Actually, if there's a dojo then it sounds like I'll be able to really focus on my karate. And I'll have summer homework, too."

That reminded Souji that he had his own homework to do, and he couldn't help but grimace. _Whatever, I can do that later._

"Is it really going to be that boring?" He asked.

"It's called space because there's nothing in it." Twoearle leaned back in her chair, running a hand through her hair. "Anyway, I'll start to make preparations down here. You two should go make sure Aika's parents are okay with this."

It was easy to find his way through the ship and back down to the hangar. "Have you thought of the story you'll tell your parents?" He asked Aika as they passed through the Space Jump Catapult room.

"I think I can get Grandfather to cover for me." Aika answered. "So mom and dad will just think I'm just going for a month long training trip, where I'll meditate under a waterfall and things like that." She frowned. "But I am more worried about what I'll tell him."

"I'd tell him you're with me, but he'd definitely notice."

"Anyway, I'll think of something." She checked her phone. "My parents won't be home for a few more hours anyway. Want to come over and get started on our homework?"

_Oof. No, I definitely don't._ Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the elevator and up to his bedroom, where she sat down Souji down on the floor in front of his small coffee table. Then she hopped from his bedroom window across to her own, got her homework, and brought it back before sitting down cross legged across from him.

"Come on. It's not like you're gonna get any of this done while I'm gone." She rolled her eyes. "Let's see if we can finish this before I leave."

Sadly, she was probably right. Glumly, he opened the book in front of him.

* * *

_Nine hundred and ninety eight._ Aika counted in her mind, as she repeated the kata once again. Her fists were powerful blurs, striking the air in front of her as sweat dripped down her face. _Nine hundred and ninety nine._ The hardest part was making certain that her final strikes were just as powerful as when she ran through other forms a few hours ago. Neither she, nor her trainer would accept any excuses for faltering. _One thousand._ She completed the final step, and let out a carefully measured breath, before raising herself up to stand at her normal height. Then she turned to her grandfather for his approval.

His name was Tsube Kenta.

He was quite small, only as tall as his granddaughter, with a similarly slim build. His face was mostly smooth and wrinkle free, young enough looking that he was often mistaken as her father. There were a few lines on his forehead, but his hair was still mostly black with only a few streaks of grey in it. These features, combined with the gentle smile he sported, gave the impression he was just a friendly middle-aged office worker, or maybe a store manager.

But in reality, he was a legendary karate instructor known throughout the nation for his ruthless techniques and devil-may care attitude towards any challenge. There were even rumors that he sent students to fight in deadly underground rings, like something directly from a battle manga. They said that his greatest disciple was far crueler and even more unassuming in their appearance than he was. This student ruthlessly struck down any who even annoyed them with lethal techniques learned directly at the feet of their master.

But as far as these two were concerned, they were just a loving grandfather and granddaughter, who shared a passion for karate.

"Yes, now start to cool down." He nodded in approval, and his beloved grandchild began the long process of stretches and breathing exercises whenever she completed one of his intense training sessions. It was only when this was finally done, that he permitted her to take off the weighted clothing she'd been wearing, which fell to the ground with a loud crash that scared birds from the trees outside.

Less than a minute later, Aika's breath had evened out again, and she smiled with satisfaction. "Thank you, Grandpa."

"Go have a shower and get changed." He told her, with a gentle smile. "I'll drop you home after breakfast with your grandmother."

"Yes, Grandpa." Obediently she hurried away.

The meal was simple but tasty, grilled fish and rice. Aika's grandmother was familiar with her diet, and gave her a large serving, though the girl was already planning to cook herself up something more when she got home.

"Any luck with that boy, Souji?" Ms Futasaku asked over the table. It was a topic she often broached.

Often enough that Aika didn't scowl or blush. She just shrugged. "He's doing well."

"That wasn't what I asked." Her grandmother smiled gently. "Are you sure he even knows you're interested? I remember your mother was like that to your father, as thick as two planks. He spent years, visiting and calling almost daily. Giving her gifts like chocolates and flowers and everything. It wasn't until he manned up and asked her out that she even realised he was attracted to her at all."

"Well, it's a little harder than that for me, Grandma." Aika grumbled. "He's the boy, he's supposed to ask me out."

"Please, I was born in the Showa era and even I'm not that old fashioned!" The woman huffed and waved a hand dismissively. "But if you insist on doing things like that, than surely you can try seducing the boy?" A fond look came over her face, as she looked towards her husband. "Why, when I was a young woman, I remember first catching your grandfather's eye with a summer dress and a subway updraft! I borrowed the idea from Miss Monroe. Have you tried something like that with Souji?" She pressed.

"I'm done." Aika declared with finality, her chopsticks clacking down to the tabletop next to her empty bowl and plate. "Are you ready to drop me home, Grandpa?"

"That was fast." Her grandmother noted, somewhat huffily.

"Do your dishes first." Kenta languidly leaned back in his chair, licking a finger before turning another page of the morning paper.

A few moments later grandfather and granddaughter were alone in the car, pulling out of the driveway. Kenta turned the car down the road, and began the familiar route across town to Aika's home.

Unusually, he was the first one to say something. "You had something you wanted to ask me?"

If Aika was surprised by his perceptiveness it didn't show. "Was it affecting me badly?"

"No." He shook his head. "You're above letting such things hinder your performance, but I could tell something was on your mind."

Aika was relieved to hear that, and took a moment to consider how to phrase the question. Her grandfather knew her so well that she doubted she could lie to him at all, and she wouldn't feel right doing it anyway… In the end, she was always going to speak to him plainly. "I need to go somewhere for more than a month, but I can't explain where or why. Can you tell Mum and Dad that you'll be taking me for a long training trip until I get back before school starts again?"

"...That's a lot to ask for." Her grandfather tapped a finger against the driving wheel. "And you can't tell me where you'll be going?"

"No."

"Will it be with Souji?"

"I wish." Aika breathed out. "No, I'll be going with another, uh, _friend_? A girl if it makes you feel better."

"Not really. I doubt a boy could force you to do much you didn't want to." He then added, "And I doubt you'd want to do much with a boy that isn't Souji."

That got a blush from Aika, though she knew better than to deny it.

"How about you tell me why you'll be going?"

"...To save someone." Aika answered honestly. Somewhere out there, a new Tailsuit Warrior was being groomed by the Elemerians for the sake of leading her world closer to destruction. It really was sinister. In her mind she imagined that being done to Souji here on Earth, and the idea of it made her gut churn.

What would he be without his Twintails? Normal? Boring? Her friend's strange love of a particular hairstyle was such a driving force in his life. It was a source of energy that led him to all sorts of strange places and without it, he'd just be… no one? Or if not no one, certainly someone that wasn't really Souji.

It was too easy to imagine him being naively led to destruction by the promise of protecting Twintails. It wouldn't even be just his destruction waiting for him at the end, it would be the erasure of something he loved from the face of the entire world. It really was sickening to imagine.

The fact that something like that was happening to girls out there on other worlds, or maybe even to dumb losers like Soji was just…

Yes, it was very important that they stop that happening. The Elemerians really were evil.

Also a bunch of degenerate creeps.

"I see." Kenta watched the emotions play across her face out the corner of his eye. He hummed to himself for a moment, before saying, "Your grandmother will be lonely without you around for a month. I suppose if you could convince young Soji to drop by the dojo every now and then, I'd be willing to let you go for a while. As long as you keep up with your training."

"Really?" Aika paused, considering his words. "You really trust me that much?"

"Hmm… In a manner, yes." His lips curled up viciously as they pulled into the driveway of Aika's home. "Or maybe I should say, at least in regards to something like this, I trust that you're more likely to do harm to others than they are to you."

"What do you mean by-"

Kenta climbed out of the car before she could finish asking the question. The front door to the Tsube residence opened, and his daughter in law stepped out to greet them.

"Ah, Aisaka. I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about. You see, an old friend of mine, a police trainer in Tokyo, put me in contact with another old friend in Okinawa. It's an excellent chance for me and Aika to travel and study an interesting school of Karate..."

* * *

All the teachers at Shibunyan Private Academy _despised _the Nakatomi name. With every fibre of their being, each and every one of the fifty seven employed at the academy dreamed of slapping Isabella, and give her a good dressing down for her outrageous indecency. Of course none of them would dare to say it to her face.

Sadly for them her father, Nakatomi Takagi, was not just on the school board, but also made certain to match all donations made to the school out of his own wallet. It didn't matter how outrageously his daughter dressed, or how flippant and dismissive she was of staff members either. Short of doing anything that would truly bring shame to her father's name, she was utterly untouchable, and she knew it.

Her friends were never quite brave enough to copy her absurd pair of drill tails directly, but they all sported a similarly rebellious hairstyle to her, in the form of simple, short, side twintails, that were easy to undo if ever the need should arise. They were distinguished from the rest of the school by their fake tans and glossy makeup. Their fathers weren't as prominent on the school board, so they were frequently lectured by teachers for their poor uniform discipline.

For this reason Isabella was alone during lunch. It didn't bother her much. She just took out her phone and spent the break playing, 'Armoured Galz'.

"She's the worst." A voice whispered to her friend from the front of the classroom. "The way she acts like she owns the place…"

_I wonder who they could be talking about? _Isabella rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, I feel kinda sorry for her." A boy's voice this time. "It's just what happens when parents give their child anything they want, without teaching them anything useful. Her father's a billionaire, I doubt she ever sees him at all. He just buys her whatever she asks for, and goes back to work."

Isabella's sneered when she heard this. Deliberately, she took out her credit card to purchase some more equipment for her favourite armoured gal in full view of the classroom, and whoever the speaker was.

_Champions pay to win._

Classes passed by in a dull blur, though at least Isabella made a cursory effort at note taking as she felt her excitement build. By the time the bell rang she'd managed to level up Hauberk-chan once, and only felt her anticipation building as she was escorted towards the school gates by her posse of friends.

"Did you hear the teacher going off at Sugiura?" Saki giggled. She was the boldest of her friends, wearing her thin twintails down to her shoulders, though she was easily the most unfortunate in terms of appearance. The generous amounts of blush and mascara she wore weren't enough to disguise the way the tip of her nose tilted up, giving her a slightly piggish look. "When he gets mad he, like, bares his teeth and its really gross. I could see spinach! Someone should take a photo!"

"H'yeah. We could print it out and post it on his homeroom board."

"Lol, totally. Are you coming to Karaoke with us, Isabella?"

"Yeah, def." Isabella glanced up from her phone. "Just let me get my driver to drop us off."

That drew a cheer from her friends. No doubt it was as much because they wouldn't have to walk there as they enjoyed her company. Isabella's company was especially easy to enjoy when she was the one paying for everything. _What's wrong with buying friends anyway? _

As they passed through the school's front gates, Isabella was surprised to not see her driver's black car, but instead a bright white imported Purrusian car. In front of it was a handsome man with black hair, in a well cut suit with a pair of fashionable glasses perched on the end of his nose.

"Who's that?" Saki gaped.

"That's _trouble_." Isabella sounded incredibly pleased, before walking quickly to the head of the group and calling out to him. "What's up, _bro_?"

He gave her a look over, face carefully neutral. "What are you wearing?"

"School uniform, duh." She smirked as he sighed with irritation. "You gonna drop me and the girls off to karaoke?"

"Just get in the car." He yanked the door open and held it for her.

"Whatever," Isabella scoffed, before climbing into the passenger seat. "Later, girls."

In response they all called out their bye bye's as the car pulled away in disappeared up the road with the roar of its powerful engine.

The siblings didn't say a word to each other the entire trip home. At one point Isabella reached for the radio, only to have her hand slapped away. With the aggressive way he drove, they soon arrived at a large western style gate built into a large wall that surrounded an enormous property. A camera mounted beside the gate turned so the gatekeeper could see the faces of the two, and they were allowed to pass through without anyone needing to check their ID. As the car drove up the road it passed fountains and hedge mazes, green houses and gazebos with an artfully tiled series of paths winding between them.

They came to a stop in front of a vast manor, the brother tossing the keys to a waiting servant who took it off to be parked. He walked through the front door, Isabella skipping along behind him and smirking victoriously. A smirk that disappeared when she found herself in an empty foyer, alone with him.

He noticed her change in expression. "Were you expecting someone?"

Now she was scowling at him. "Where's Mum?"

"Your mother is with our father." He replied. "Alongside your elder brothers. They have far more important things to deal with than _this_." He indicated her head. "I'm the only one who came here to see you."

She grit her jaw angrily, and hmphed. With her nose in the air, she stalked out of the room, not even pausing in her stride when she threw her school bag to a maid. Despite herself, tears welled in her eyes, though none of the staff commented or asked what was wrong as they all ducked out of her way or averted their gaze.

She climbed the long set of stairs to her bedroom suite alone and slammed the doors closed behind her with all the finality of an upset teen. Sadly, much like the proverbial tree in the proverbial forest, the only ones around to hear and appreciate it were the serving staff, who were far too professional to comment.

Isabella kicked off her shoes and fell onto her bed face first. She stayed there for a while, before rolling over and sitting up. Glancing over at her bed stand, her eyes lingered for a moment on a scrap board, that among the photos was one of a little girl and a beautiful young woman together in front of a birthday cake. The glow from the candles conflicted with the flash of the camera, tinting the picture in odd tones that left the two of them with red eyes. _It really is an ugly photo. _Despite that, her eyes lingered on the women's hair, done up in a crude, childish pair of twintails.

She wiped her eyes. "Whatever." Isabella said aloud, sitting up and crossing the room to throw open her walk in closet. She flicked a switch on the wall, turning on a number of lights that flicked on one by one, revealing row upon row of scrunchies, barrettes, and hair ties.


	3. 03 Goodbye

It was the final day of school, and the last day before Aika and Twoearle set out together. Souji spent the early morning with Aika, carrying boxes of food down to the elevator and to the ship. Most of it was preserved, canned meats and vegetables along with plenty of bags of rice, flour and sugar too. There were some nice fruits and vegetables in the crisper, along with bloody red meat in freezer bags. Twoearle had insisted on packing some fresh ingredients to enjoy for just the first few days while they could, and Aika seemed to like the idea too.

There was also toiletries and clothes and all sorts of things to move. Aika had prepared a list of everything they would need, and she was careful to check off everything on it before the three of them left for school that morning. Souji had always felt like Aika's organisational skills were kind of a pain to deal with, but if ever he forgot something on a school trip she'd often have a spare for him to use, so it balanced out in the end.

They were just out of view of her house, when Aika spoke up to him. "Grandpa agreed to cover for me over the holidays, but only if you visited the Dojo a few times."

"Really?" He yawned and stretched his shoulders. Some of those boxes had been pretty heavy and it was an early start for him… "Why?"

"Um… I think he just doesn't want to be lonely?" Aika smiled fondly. "Though he didn't say that. I mean, it is free karate lessons from a professional instructor, so…"

"Sure, I'll go." He grimaced a little as he said it. It wasn't something that he hated doing especially, but he never fell in love with the sport the way Aika did. "I guess it's not a high price to pay for a month of him covering for you."

"Yeah…" Aika agreed, frowning. "I hate having to lie about this, especially to mom and dad."

"Well, do you really want your parents to know you're running around dressed like Tail Blue, instead?" Twoearle pointed out, proving that yawning was contagious as she did. The bags under her eyes were especially noticeable. Evidently she'd spent all night making preparations for the trip. "Or your grandfather?"

"Definitely not." Just the thought of it made Aika looked like she'd swallowed a lemon.

"Yeah, imagine if it got out that I was Tail Red." Souji pointed out. His Reputation, as poor as it already was because of his vocal love of twintails, would soon be destroyed beyond any hope of recovery. The world over he would be known as the creepy guy that liked to transform into a little girl and run around in a leotard. _Hell, I probably wouldn't want to be associated with someone like that, either._ The only person who ever really seemed to understand his love of twintails was Aika, everyone else was always weirded out.

"You know what's making me kinda jealous?" He decided to change the topic. "You're going to space, tomorrow."

"What's there to be jealous of?" Aika glared at him suspiciously. "Don't tell me you really want to spend a month alone with Twoearle?"

"Of course he does!" Twoearle interrupted. "He's a red blooded young man faced with a full bodied yet youthful woman of his age! Compared to the, uh, _modestly adorned_ little manlets he knew before-"

"Actually!" Souji quickly spoke up before Aika forced him to _carry _Twoearle the rest of the way to school. "I really was just thinking that you'll get to be the first person from Earth to go to another planet, Aika."

His old friend had been clenching her fist and glaring at Twoearle, but stopped to consider his words. "I guess you're right, huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, who hasn't dreamed of going to Mars or something at some point in their life?"

"...It's actually a little underwhelming." Aika crossed her arms, and looked to Twoearle. "When the Americans went to the moon, it was because of the dreams of a nation and decades of hard work finally paying off, but this is just hitching a ride with, well, a dimension hopping lolicon."

_Man, when she puts it like that…_ "Twoearle really is kinda disappointing, huh?"

"So cruel!" Twoearle gasped. "Well, if that's how you feel Aika, why don't you stay here and I'll take Souji!"

"You know why we can't do that." Souji sighed and walked past her. "But I really do want to go... Just try not to fight too much when you're alone together, you two."

"I suspect we'll be fine when the source of our conflict isn't around." Aika mumbled under her breath, though he wasn't exactly sure what she meant.

* * *

Aika and Souji were eating lunch in the clubroom, along with Twoearle, Erina, and her maid Mikoto. The atmosphere in the room was a little downtrodden, and the source of it seemed to be Twoearle for some reason. Rather than her usual attempts to seduce Souji, broken up by Aika's uncontrolled fits of violence, their interdimensional friend was instead looking at the fuzzy keys to the spaceship with a miserable look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Erina asked.

"Nothing much." Twoearle sighed. "Just remembering the last time I had to go on a trip through space."

Aika and Souji glanced at each other at the same time, and realised they were both thinking the same thing.

_That was when she fled her world, right?_

_It must have been miserable._ he nodded back towards Aika as he thought it. _Just imagine being trapped alone in a spaceship, with nothing to think of but your own failure for potentially months on end._ "How long was the journey last time?"

"Sixty nine days." Twoearle sighed. "I ran out of porn by day seventeen."

Aika, who had been swallowing a mouthful of rice suddenly choked and beat her chest.

"I forgot to pack spare batteries too." Twoearle continued. "By day fourty two, I was thinking of turning my Little Girl attribute into Elemera just to power my vibrator, but I knew that would defeat the point. Without the attribute I wouldn't even be able to get excited."

"I can't believe I felt sorry for you for even a moment." Aika croaked before taking a long drink of water.

Erina was blushing heavily, but she piped up. "W-well, at least this time you won't be alone?"

"What am I supposed to do with _her_?" Twoearle frowned, looking up at Aika. "Why do you think I wanted Souji to come?!"

"And why do you think I stopped Souji from going?!" Aika growled right back, leaning forward and slamming her stainless steel thermic on the table.

Souji decided to change the topic before things got out of hand again. "Do you know anything about the world you're going to?"

"Yeah," Twoearle sat back down heavily in her chair. "Ultimagil scouts out the worlds they plan on harvesting years ahead of time, which was how I knew to come here in front of them. The computer in the ship is one of theirs, and I was able to get everything off it."

"So… What's the world we're going to like?" Aika sat back down, curiosity overriding her wrath for the moment, much to everyone's relief.

"Uh… It's a lot like this world, but everyone there has cat ears and a tail, but is otherwise human?" She shrugged. "Some of the Elemerians were apparently really excited by it in their chat logs, but that was never my thing so…"

"...There's a world like that?" Souji sounded disbelieving. Cat ears and twintails… In the images in his head, they actually went together pretty well?

"Well, duh?" Twoearle gave him a look like he'd said something particularly silly. "If there's an infinite number of worlds out there, then there's literally an infinite number of cat worlds, too? They're every bit as common as world's with humans like you or me. Or, at least, something so close to human that there's no real way to tell the difference, anyway."

"Huh." Souji sat back, frowning. "Does that mean there's, like, a world of fox girls too?"

"Oh, no definitely not." Twoearle chuckled. "That would be ridiculous."

"Oh…"

"So why don't the Elemerians just go to the Twintail world?" Erina asked, looking up at Twoearle with interest.

"Cause there isn't one." Twoearle shrugged. "Or maybe I should say there might be one out there somewhere, but that doesn't mean they've found it. Also, no world is entirely one thing, either. Like, Earth has deserts and forests and all kinds of cultures on it. All the other worlds are a lot like that. So you might think of the world we're going to as the 'catgirl world', but they're divided into all kinds of countries, ethnicities, and religions, just like this world. They'd think of your world as the 'shriveled ears' world, or something like that."

That made sense, Souji guessed. Some of them would probably even find the idea of normal human ears cute. _Would we be portrayed as slaves and sex objects in their fantasy settings like they are in ours?_ "...I kinda wanna play their version of Last Quest Twelve…"

Aika rolled her eyes at Souji, before asking. "Do you know anything about the Tailsuit Warrior we're going to save?"

"The scouting report mentioned a few potential candidates, but ultimately anyone with a sincere love of Twintails could be chosen. It's down to the commander's preference, usually based on their own tastes."

"Do we know anything about the commander then?" Aika always wanted to ask such _boring _questions.

"No, my computer hasn't got the orders for whoever was assigned this mission." She frowned. "Honestly, I'm worried that we're going to arrive and find the world already harvested. It could be a huge waste of time."

"We might want to consider capturing another Ultimeguil ship, then." Souji suggested. "So we can know who they're going to target after that, or what their plans are to deal with us."

"One thing at a time." Twoearle advised. "I really don't want to be going after their ships without more Tailsuit Warriors."

"Yeah, we still need Pink and Green before we've got a complete roster." Erina pointed out, before nibbling on a rice cracker.

After that they lapsed into silence until the bell rang and classes started again.

Just as they were leaving, Erina who was first out the door, turned to face Aika and Twoearle. "There's no club today, so… This is probably the last time I'm going to see you two until you get back." Her face was just a little pink. "So I just wanted to say goodbye now."

"It'll only be a month." Twoearle pointed out, but smiled and ruffled Erina's hair. "We'll be back before Summer Holidays end, anyway. So you may as well say goodbye to Souji, too."

"Oh, but I'll see him during the holidays?" Erina answered innocently.

"...Why?" Aika's voice was suspicious.  
A full blown blush spread over Erina's face as she broke eye contact. "Good bye, you two!"

"Hey!" Aika called out, as their senior and her maid scurried off. "What's that supposed to mea-"

"Come on, we're gonna be late for class." Souji grabbed Aika's sleeve and dragged her in the other direction.

* * *

That afternoon, Souji's mother made one last meal for him, Twoearle, and Aika at Adolescenza.

"Do you two have everything packed?" She asked them over a cup of coffee.

"Yep." Aika's answer was short because she was more focused on eating. As he watched, Souji worried they hadn't packed enough food. _Will Aika eat Twoearle if they run out?_

"Really you two, it seems such a shame to leave Soji behind." Miharu shook her head. "There are all sorts of things you could do with him…"

"I know." Twoearle groaned, laying her head in one hand and pounding the table with her other.

"You better hurry _back~_" Miharu took another sip of coffee. "Because while you're gone little Erina will be visiting a lot, I bet."

"Honestly, he's so dense I doubt she'll have any more luck than I have." Twoearle grumbled.

For some reason Aika glared at Souji again.

"What?" He asked her.

She huffed and shoved another spoonful of curry into her mouth.

"Honestly." Mom shook her head ruefully, looking between the two of them.

After the meal, Aika decided to head straight home. Apparently she and Twoearle would be setting out pretty early tomorrow morning, so she wanted to get a good night's sleep. The sun was only just starting to set as she opened the front door.

"Are you gonna wake me up to say goodbye tomorrow?" Souji asked, while they both lingered on the doorstep.

"I wasn't planning it."

"Oh." Strangely, he felt disappointed, but he didn't want to ask her, 'Why not?'

She must have seen something in his expression because she answered his unspoken question. "It will only be a month." Her voice was wistful even though she rolled her eyes at him. "You'll get to sleep in for once."

"Silver linings, I guess." The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward and they both stood in silence. It was meant as fun, but maybe she was upset? "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's my fault." She cut across, blushing faintly. "I mean, I was the one who made the joke, so…"

"Yeah, it's okay." He scratched the back of his head and swallowed.

It was a warm evening, with clear skies and only half the moon was out, so the stars were easily visible. A car passed in the street just in front of the house, illuminating the two of them in its headlights for a moment. Aika was looking up at Souji, and he could tell there was something clearly on her mind. Whatever she wanted to say, she eventually decided not to say it, and looked back down to the ground.

"What are you thinking?"

"Just…" She pressed her fingers against each other nervously. "I know it's only a month, but I… That is I mean… Before I left I wanted to say… I… l-lo… I'll miss you."

"Oh. Y-yeah." He agreed quickly. "It'll be weird not being able to see you every day. When was the last time we were split up like this?"

"Yeah…" She agreed, and gave it some consideration. "I don't even remember… Maybe for a couple of weeks in primary school?"

He knew her well enough to think it looked like there was still something she wanted to say. Maybe she was just working up the courage to say it out loud? Souji decided to keep the conversation going, to give her time. The first thing that came to mind was, "Um… Try not to fight with Twoearle too much?"

Aika's face darkened suddenly.

_Is just thinking of Twoearle enough to make her angry?_ "I mean, she's not weirdly strong like you are. She doesn't have your rough hands, so she can't really punch anyone very hard?" Souji wasn't even sure what he was saying, but it was something to just keep the conversation going. He found more words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush, and he immediately regretted every one of them, as his friend's scowl deepened. "Like, keep her safe I guess, she's been through a lot, you know? I know she gets under your skin, and you get angry way too easily, but-"

"Just shut up!" She interrupted him, clenching her fist with one hand and pinching the bridge of her nose with the other.

"...Sorry." He offered lamely, not entirely sure what he'd done wrong.

"...Will you see me off tomorrow?" She asked, unclenching her fist and staring at him hard.

"Yeah, I'll set my alarm." He answered quickly.

"Don't." She crossed her arms. "I'd rather say goodbye here and now without Twoearle to interrupt."

"O-okay." He nodded, though he was confused.

After another long moment of looking at him, she breathed out and said with a grimace. "Goodbye, Souji."

"...I'll see you soon, Aika."

She turned and walked down the path to the street, while he lingered to watch her leave. After a moment, Souji turned back to the house and went to walk inside when he suddenly heard rapid footsteps on the path behind him. When he turned around, he flinched as he saw Aika fling herself at him. He instinctively expected a blow and raised his hands to protect his upper body and face. Instead, her arms circled around his chest and he was pulled into a tight hug.

"Ah." After his shock wore off, Souij hugged her back and felt her hair brush against his cheekbone.

"I really will miss you." She said, her voice surprisingly brittle. "Idiot that you are."

"...Yeah." He agreed on both points.

After a moment they separated, and she ran a thumb under her eye and pretended to yawn for some reason. "Sorry, it's just late."

It was only six thirty.

Without saying anything else, they separated. She went to her house, and he went back up to his bedroom. Later, when Souji went to have his shower, he noticed a small wet patch on the collar of his shirt where Aika's face had pressed up against it.

"Tears." He rubbed it between his fingers, and realised he was already missing his oldest friend.


	4. 04 Takeoff

When Aika stepped out the front door of her house that morning the sun wasn't even out yet. Pink light was just starting to peak over the distant mountains, so the only illumination as she started down the path from her front door were the street lights on the footpath. Normally she'd just climb into the Mitsuka residence through Souji's window, but she didn't want to risk waking him up. Last night had been frustrating enough, between Souji's denseness and her own temper, but it'd be infinitely worse with Twoearle there.

The front door to cafe Adolescenza was unlocked, it was only a rural town afterall, so there wasn't much risk of burglary. Even so, it had been nice of Miharu to leave it open for Aika. The little bell rang as the door swung inwards, and she quickly reached up to silence it with her fingers. As she looked around the room, she noticed a pair of boxed lunches on the front counter, with a little neatly folded note sitting on top.

_Souji asked me to set these aside for you. Be careful out there and take care of each other._

_-Miharu Mitsuka_

Dimly, Aika realised she was going to miss Aunty Miharu, as well. _It's only a month, it's only a month. _With the meals in hand, she headed downstairs and entered the secret elevator. After a few minutes going down, the doors opened with a cheerful ping, and Aika was greeted by the sight of Twoearle with a mug of steaming coffee in hand.

"You ready?" Twoearle asked, taking a sip. For once she looked almost like a dignified scientist, instead of a silver screen take on a sexy scientist.

"Yeah, definitely." Aika held up the boxed lunches for Twoearle to see. "A parting gift from Mitsuka."

Twoearle nodded. "Yeah, she left one for me too. She's nice like that."

The spaceship looked pretty much unchanged from the last time they entered, though there were a number of bags of supplies just past the cargo ramp. The two of them walked in silence, and Aika noticed a few additional lighting installations and a couch. All the changes seemed to be made for personal comfort, which was understandable. Each step of the stairs was spaced far enough apart that climbing them would be hazardous, especially in the dark.

Aika dropped the lunch boxes into the fridge, before heading back to the bridge. "How are you going to get the ship out of the hangar?"

"Sit down, strap in, and be quiet. I need to focus." Twoearle's face took on a look of intense concentration.

Of course Aika didn't like being spoken to so shortly, but it was rare for Twoearle to seem so serious about something. Were they going to have to fly out of a cavern like in the movies? As she strapped herself in, Aika found herself tensing up.

Twoearle glanced over her shoulder to make sure Aika was secure, before looking forward. "Okay, we're launching in thirty seconds. Starting the countdown…" She pressed a button on the console. "Now."

Red lights started flashing across the bridge, in time with a mechanical female voice that started to ring out. "**Thirty. Twenty nine. Twenty eight.**"

Through the window, Aika could see the walls of the hangar begin to glow blue in places as some kind of energy started building up. The back of Twoearle's head was cast in the contrasting shades of light as she took the same fluffy key from her pocket and inserted it into the console.

"Alright, brace yourself."

"**Ten. Nine. Eight."**

Aika swallowed nervously, and found her fingers digging into the seat rest as she prepared for the worst.

"**Three. Two. One. Zero."**

At the same time the voice said the last number, Twoearle turned the key in the console, and the blue lights surrounding the ship flashed, and for a second Aika was blinded. When her vision cleared, she was looking out the front window of the ship at a field of stars, and a blue ball with white patches that it took her a moment to identify as earth.

"What was that?" She asked, disbelieving as she checked herself over for injury or extra limbs.

"Oh, well the hangar was just one big Space Jump Catapult, so I just launched us into space." Twoearle yawned and pushed a button on the console, and the ship turned so that Earth disappeared to the left of their vision and out of view.

"What?" Aika looked at her incredulously. "It was that easy?"

"Yeah?" Twoearle glanced back at her. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Then what was with the flashing lights?! And the countdown!?" Aika sputtered.

"Oh, well, you and Souji were talking about how space travel just didn't seem special enough, so I added those so you wouldn't feel so disappointed."

Aika slumped in her chair. "You scared me half to death, you idiot!"

"Sorry~" Twoearle apologised, unapologetically. "We are about to accelerate though, so don't get out of your seat just yet."

Aika stewed in frustration while Twoearle did some more computer calculations, and with a sharp lurch that would have thrown them off their feet if they were standing, the ship jerked into motion.

"Sorry." Twoearle grunted. "Just gotta get used to driving stick again."

After a few more gear changes, the stars and dark void that were in the view screen were replaced with a strange field of writhing purple clouds with the occasional jagged line of black lightning. Inside the clouds ominous titanic forms were visible, dwarfing their ship utterly as they made slow, whale like movements and sounds.

"What's this?" Aika asked, watching out the front window in fascination.

"Oh, well, we're going faster than light, so you literally can't see anything out there." Twoearle shrugged. "That's just a screen saver."

"...I don't know what else I should have expected." Her eyebrows came together. "Is that really your screen saver?"

"Yeah, I had a better one, but I figured you would be upset by it, so I just used the default one again." Twoearle unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up, stretching her shoulders. "Well, I'm beat. You got anything you want to watch?"

"...That's it? There's nothing else you have to do?"

"Pretty much." Twoearle shrugged. "Space is basically just empty, you know? So's the space in between universes. We're just going in a straight line until we get there."

"Huh." Aika frowned, and undid her own seatbelt, looking back out of the viewing port. Or, well, at it. "It's that easy?"

"If it's so 'easy', why don't you do the math for the jump next time, then?" Twoearle huffed. "The word you're looking for is 'boring'. Not easy."

"So… What do we do now?" Aika looked back to Twoearle. "Just find a way to kill time for the next thirty days or so?"

"Pretty much." Twoearle picked up a remote and pressed a button. The view of the swirling nebula was immediately replaced with a cartoon of a young boy chopping wood. Aika instantly recognised it as Roku from Dragon Sphere, episode one. "You can watch this with me, or go eat raw meat or whatever it is you do."

"...The early episodes are pretty boring, I'm gonna go practice."

"Sounds good to me." Twoearle replied over her shoulder, settling back into her chair, as the door whooshed shut behind Aika.

* * *

Souji was woken up by the line of sunlight that slipped in between his bedroom curtains that morning. He somehow found it pleasant and lonely at the same time. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up and stretched, before looking through the window and across to Aika's balcony. Her curtains were drawn, so he couldn't see inside, but he knew she was gone already. According to his phone it was ten thirty in the morning. He really had slept in.

After getting dressed, he headed downstairs to have breakfast. The meal was quiet without Twoearle there, and for the first time in a while he ate a meal in relative silence. He could hear some chatter from the cafe, so it sounded like the store was busy, at least. He considered going down to help mom, but if she really needed him for anything she'd call out. After he finished, he did the dishes, went back up to his room, and turned on the computer.

There was nothing very interesting on the news feed he checked, and not a lot of interest on his usual social media sites either. Without any Tail Red sightings, all her fan sites were quiet except for a few people debating the hero's absence. Some of them insisted that Tail Blue had done something terrible and a search and rescue needed to be launched.

Turning it off, he boredly wandered down to the cafe and tried to think of something to do. The only thing Souji could come up with was finishing his summer homework, but immediately dismissed the idea.

"Aika wrote this for me on the back of the note I left her." Mom said to him, holding out a folded piece of paper.

_Thank you for the meal, Auntie. Don't let Soji forget Grandpa, please._

_-Aika_

"I suppose that's something to do." He mumbled to myself. Then he thought about kata's and hours of hard exercise, and found himself thinking of something else. "Or maybe Erina wants to hang out?"

* * *

"Oh my gawd, I love this song!" A shrill voice squeals, soon joined by a corus of others. This small room was stuffed to the brim with twelve high school age girls and four boys. It served one very important purpose: the grand and ancient national pastime of Nyapon, Karaoke. Even the most ultranationalist and conservative of this land's proud people frequently visited such parlours, especially to enjoy singing old war anthems and patriotic tunes. It was almost a sacred right of passage that everyone was expected to have completed at least once. It was so ubiquitous, that even a group of twintail wearing, morally degenerate teens would go together to enjoy it after school. The rebellious part was the boys they extended their invitation to.

"Satoshi, sing this one with me!" Saki demanded of one blushing young man, taking him by the hand and dragging him to his feet. They were of course, terrible. Off key, out of tune, and somehow worse together than apart, but that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was the top three buttons of her blazer were undone, and Satoshi spent most of the song staring at her cleavage.

Soon Saki and Satoshi finished their duet, and another couple volunteered to replace them at the mic. So it went around the room, and everyone had a good time. Except for Isabella Nakatomi.

While all around her cheered or jeered, she sat on her phone and played Armoured Galz. Being the leader of this group, and the one who was paying for everything, no one was willing to call her out on her downer attitude or demand she join the fun. They all knew she'd been in a bad mood since arriving at school that morning, being more rude and short fused than she usually was.

When she told them all they were going to karaoke, and even invited some of the boys from class, everyone had gone along with it for fear of being turned out of the clique. If Isabella wanted to spend all her dad's money on drinks and hours of karaoke, then they were happy to enjoy it even if she wasn't.

An hour passed, with Isabella only occasionally glancing up from her phone. One time, when she glanced up, she found her glass of diet cola was empty. "Oy, Yuri." She looked directly to the shortest girl in the group, who had the longest twintails aside from her own. "Go get more drinks."

"Yeah, no probs." Yuri smiled cheerily, despite being ordered like that. "Coke for everyone?"

"Diet coke." Isabella corrected, looking back down to her phone.

"Yeah-yeah!" Yuri agreed enthusiastically, and hopped to the door awkwardly, barely avoiding everyone else's feet as she did. She went to open it, only for the door to be opened right in front of her.

No one else in the group noticed as her eyes bulged, and she looked up, and up, until her face was almost vertical to the roof. She stumbled backwards in disbelief, turning pale as she did. No one in the group noticed her reaction, until she moved in front of the tv screen, making it hard for people to read the lyrics for the song that was playing.

"Hey, come on get out of the way!" Satoshi yelled at her.

Instead of answering him, Yuri screamed, as a giant form ducked into the room from under the doorway and stood to its full height. It was armoured with a black and yellow exoskeleton, and stood at a full nine feet tall, the crest of its head poking a hole in the ceiling. It had six segmented arms with vicious talons at the end of each. When it spoke, the mandibles on its face opened and closed in time with its words.

"Such... _pitiful_ twintails." It's voice was a raspy hiss, loud enough to be audible even over the sugary nya-pop. "Is this really, the greatest collection of Twintail attribute available in this pitiful archipelago?" He paused as his eyes settled on Isabella. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I didn't see you back there right away… Those Twintails are _magnificent._"

Silence reigned until Isabella spoke up, voice dripping with contempt. "Who let you in here, _weirdo_? This is a private room."

Insect like eyes blinked slowly, before a hissing chuckle filled the room. "Excellent, truly excellent. You alone will definitely make this trip worth it."

Isabella's first thought was her father, and how much she'd be worth to him in ransom. Even with the way she acted out, probably a lot. Reaching into her purse, she pressed a button on a small remote, and knew that somewhere not too far off a security firm had been notified of her distress. Licking her lips, she glanced around the room, sizing up the people in it and comparing them to the giant insect man. She didn't like what she saw, nevertheless, when she spoke there wasn't any quaver in her voice. "Satoshi, Yanagi, Itoh, and whatever your name is. Get rid of this _loser _and I'll give you a hundred thousand nyan each."

The four boys looked at each other, nervous and unsure.

"What? Are you cute little boys scared?" Isabella challenged. "He's just some creeper in cosplay." She was smart enough to see that he clearly wasn't, or at least that costume was made of unnervingly convincing organic material if he was, but she still needed to sell it to the others.

"Yeah!" Satoshi agreed after a moment, standing up and brandishing the mic like a club. "Come on, dude. Get out of here, dweeb!"

"How brave of you to challenge I, Waspguildy, to battle." He stretched out his arms as if to embrace them. "Come at me, in honourable combat!"

"Yeah, kick his ass Satoshi!" Saki chimed in, cheering for her boyfriend.

After looking at each other for reassurance one last time, the four of them charged together, brandishing their fists and yelling loudly. Their attacks were as much tackles as they were anything else. The combined weight of four young men slammed into Waspguildy all at once, and had hardly any impact at all. They locked their arms around him, struggling to bring him to the ground, hanging off his many limbs and straining. In response, Waspguildy simply chuckled.

Isabella chewed her lip, and looked past the scrum to the door. "What are you girls doing?!" She barked, and all her friends flinched, looking at her suddenly. "Saki, Yuri, get in there!" She pointed aggressively at Waspguildy and the heaving boys.

It took a moment, but eventually their fear of her won over their common sense, and more of the girls piled onto Waspguildy, without much additional affect on him.

"Is this it?" Waspguildy laughed, not moving an inch. "How pathet- Wait, where are you going?!"

Isabella agily leapt from the table and over the pile of struggling teens. With his arms otherwise occupied, Waspguildy was only able to brush the tip of his clawed fingers on the girl's ankle as she slipped out the door and dashed down the hallway.

"Get back here!" He roared, offended at her selfishness and cowardice, throwing off all the grapplers effortlessly. His shoulder slammed into the doorframe and broke through it like wet tissue paper. "Damn it!" He snarled as he stepped into the corridor. "Ultiroids, capture these pitiful twintails! And bring me that girl!"

At his command, dozens of black catsuit wearing, thin and pathetic creatures swarmed out of every door in the hallway and gave chase to Isabella. Some of them stayed behind and began restraining the teen boys and girls that had been left in the room.

Meanwhile, Isabella burst out of the front door and onto the street, breath hitching at the sight which awaited her. All around her, what she could only describe as creepily dressed aliens were running around with devices in their hands that looked a lot like ray guns. When they fired, whatever they pointed it at was surrounded in a bubble, and any person hit was suspended helplessly in the air.

"What the _fudge _is this..." Isabella gasped, clutching her phone in one hand and her panic button in the other. She knew it had a small tracking device which would allow her father's hired security to find her directly. _They're supposed to be here in less than two minutes._

The weird skinny aliens were separating the people they captured into those with traditional Nyaponese ponytails, and those without them.

Isabella heard the sound of many footsteps coming out of the building behind her, and she quickly ducked into the alley between the karaoke bar and the neighbouring building to hide.

"Where'd she go?" A familiar hissing voice growled, and heavy footsteps sounded near the entrance of the alley.

A skinny black alien ran up to Waspguildy, and said to him in a shrill voice. "Mugi-mugi! Mugi!"

"Yes, these ponytails are a subpar attribute." Waspguildy nodded and surveyed the captured people's with contempt. "And yet our orders are to start here. Even with that one fantastic set from that rich girl, and all her less impressive friends, this strikes me as quite a strange place to begin our harvest."

The sound of squealing tires echoed from further up the street, and a blue and white van branded "QuickSec" came to a sharp halt in front of the giant alien. From her hiding spot in the alley, Isabella could see from behind the corner of the dumpster the driver of the van gape in disbelief at the alien.

"What's this?" Waspguildy scoffed. "Warriors of some kind? Heh, I'll deal with these personally." One of his taloned hands seized the front of the van, and lifted the entire thing off the ground. The driver of the van threw open his door and jumped out, just as the entire thing was violently flipped over to land with an ear ringing bang on its roof.

Isabella's breath hitched, as the back door of the vehicle was thrown open by a pair of Ultiroids, and a collection of business suit wearing, bald headed, cat men fell out of the door onto the road. That was the security team her father had hired for her personal protection, defeated in moments without even drawing a weapon…

Swallowing fearfully, Isabella crept backwards, further down the alley, until she turned and walked face first into another insect man. This one was thin, and tall, with what looked like a cravat of pale pink flower petals around his neck. He looked down at her, his mandibles twitching and his bulbous eyes blinking one at a time.

Isabella staggered backwards, swallowing a scream and thrust a shaking hand into her handbag to withdraw some kind of weapon, but all she found was a can of deodorant.

The giant insect man bent down so his head was level with hers, and turned his face to focus one eye on her. "...Magnificent!" He breathed out. "I'd seen the footage, but in person these truly are _spectacular_ twint-" He cut off with a yelp as Isabella sprayed her deodorant directly into his eye. "Ahh!" He shrieked, clutching his face and falling back. "Such violence!"

Isabella tried to run past him, but one of his flailing limbs caught her in the leg, and she fell face forward into the grime of the alley.

"What's going on here?" Waspguildy hissed, stepping into the entrance. "Ah! There you are, and…" His eyes narrowed on the other insect man. "...Who are you? I was to undertake this operation alone!"

"Ah, my apologies." He blinked and rubbed his now bloodshot eye, before standing back up to his full height. "My name is Orchidguildy. And I'm here to save these twintails." He turned his neck, looking at Isabella who'd rolled onto her back. "I'm here to save you, Princess."


	5. 05 Pink is the New Black

Orchidguildy's declaration hung in the air, and it seemed to catch his fellow alien by surprise more than it did Isabella. The fourteen year old paused in thought when she heard it, before she pointed a finger at Waspguildy. "Great. Get rid of that guy."

"Ha!" Waspguildy jeered. "I've never heard of you, '_Orchguildy'_, but if you think you can fight me, then I'll be happy to destroy you."

"Ah, Wait-wait-wait!" Orchidguildy held up both his hands. "I'm a pacifist I couldn't possibly fight you!"

"A pacifist?" Waspguildy repeated, disgust and bewilderment dripping from his mandibles. "Then tell me, coward, how it is you intend to save this girl?"

"I… was actually hoping to convince you to leave her be?" Orchidguildy replied, sweat forming on the crest of his head. "You see, every twintail is a beautiful and uniquely precious thing, and our organization, Ultimaguil, threatens to destroy them all!"

Waspguildy scoffed. "What are you talking about?"

"There may be an infinite number of worlds out there, but each and every twintail on each and every one of them is special, and loved individually!" Orchidguildy's voice grew passionate as he continued. "Don't you see how tragic it is to lose even one of them?"

"...That's ridiculous." Waspguildy rolled his eyes. "For one thing, most girls grow out of twintails once they reach a certain age, so they're mostly doomed anyway. What value do they really have, if we Elemerians weren't there to appreciate them in the first place? Secondly, we need to consume attributes to survive."

"But surely we can harvest lesser attributes?" Orchidguildy countered. "Like ponytails? Yes, it's not the most delicious of attributes, but no one will really miss it. Like, for example miss…?" He turned to face the girl.

"Nakatomi." Isabella answered. "One second, though. Are you saying you're here to take my twintails?" Her voice pitched up incredulously.

"Ah, that's almost exactly what he's saying." Orchidguildy proclaimed triumphantly, and gave a smug look to Waspguildy. "Tell me, Miss Nakatomi, if you were given the choice, would you be willing to part with your twintails in exchange for suitable compensation?"

"...No?" Isabella stood up slowly, looking beyond him to Waspguildy. "Is that… _really _what's at stake here?"

Waspguildy rolled his eyes. "Yes, exactly. I'm here to steal Elemera, specifically twintail attribute, because it's the greatest of all attributes. I was drawn to you in particular due to your intensely powerful love of twintails."

Orchidguildy added. "Don't be fooled, he's not just here for that one attribute, he's here for _all_ your attributes. Your love of any unique thing you hold precious to you. Now, knowing this, are you _sure_ you wouldn't be willing to part with that attribute in exchange for currency? Or something like that?"

"Over my dead body." Isabella flatly answered.

"There we go!" Orchidguildy turned back to his fellow alien. "I think on an ethical level, this dilemma is resolved. You don't have the right to steal from her anything she doesn't want to give you."

Waspguildy's antenna folded down over his eyes, resembling a pair of eyebrows. "Or how about this instead?" One of his claws suddenly lashed out, and pierced Orchidguildy right through his chest. "Might. makes. **right**."

"...But I'm an anarchocapitalist!" Orchidguildy groaned, falling to his knees, and clutching his fresh glowing wound. "Oh, no. I could explode at any moment!"

"Serves you right, traitor!" Waspguildy growled.

"Isabella, please! You need to put this on!" Orchidguildy threw something at the girl, where it clinked to the ground just short of her and rolled to a stop at her feet.

When she bent down and picked it up, it looked like a metallic pink armband that had a small grey gem embossed in its centre. "What does it do?"

"It's a tailsuit! An incredible set of power armor, made for those with strong Twintail attribute so they can break the tyranny of the Ultimaguil!"

"I thought you were a pacifist?" Waspguildy pointed out.

"Yes, but like any true pacifist really all I do is snear down my nose at the people who protect me while keeping my own hands clean."

Waspguildy snorted with disgust and kicked the downed Orchidguildy. He looked back to the teen, and held his arms wide. "A Tailsuit Warrior, here? I've always wanted to test my might against one." He clenched his six fists eagerly. "Go ahead, transform girl! It's the only hope you have of saving yourself!"

Isabella took a step backwards and put the band on. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"All you need to do is wish hard enough, and you'll transform!"

_Am I really about to do this?_ A nagging voice in the back of her head doubted loudly. At the same time, there was a certain eagerness in the way her heart beat loudly inside her chest. A powerful battlesuit that only she could use? It sounded almost too good to be true, _but surely with this everyone would have to notice…_

"Transform!" She ordered aloud, and was immediately surrounded by a glowing pink light. Her legs were covered by the wave of illumination, and where it passed over, it left behind black thigh high boots with gorgeous pink high heels. The light traveled over her lower body, and though it left her midriff bare, her hips were covered in an indecent pink skirt that just fell short of her thighs, leaving her dark grey panties fully visible. As it passed over her shoulders she was draped in a mantle with shoulder pads that stretched down to the back of her knees. Her forearms and hands were covered in armoured pink and white gauntlets. When the light finally vanished over her head, it left behind a porcelain crown with bright magenta gems, shaped so that it accommodated her twintails perfectly.

"Oh, wow." Isabella uttered aloud. "Oh, _wow._" She turned on the spot, looking at her outfit from different angles. "This is actually real."

"And so is **this**!" Waspguildy snarled, his fist slamming into her midriff with enough force that the shockwave threw up a cloud of dust.

Isabella, or Tailpink, was rocketed down the alley by the blow, smashing through the wall on the other side of it into the middle of hairdresser's storeroom. Boxes of shampoo, hair straighteners, and other products tipped over to spill their contents over her.

She blinked, before sitting up and staring at her hands in disbelief. _I'm alive?_ She was coated in debris from crushed bricks, and she thought it likely she'd find bruises later, but any person hould have died from being struck so hard, let alone smashing through the wall… She stood up, fragments and bottles falling off her as she brushed the coating of dust from her knees.

"Still standing?" Waspguildy rasped, stalking up the alley. "Good. It wouldn't mean anything if defeating you were so easy."

It was as the nine foot tall, armoured alien was approaching that Isabella dimly realised the sort of fighting she did in elementary school didn't even come close to preparing her for this. _Hair pulling probably won't win me this one…_

Waspguildy lashed out again, and she threw out her palm to stop the blow. She caught his fist in hers, gaping in disbelief at the amount of pressure she was able to resist. He threw another punch with another hand, and she caught that too.

"Hah!" Waspguildy sneered, then all four of his remaining fists lashed out simultaneously, pummeling Tailpink in her face, stomach and chest, again and again. Tailpink gasped, able to do little in the face of the onslaught. She lost count of how many times she was struck, and when she tried to pull away, she found the hands she'd used to hold Waspguildy now gripped by him, pinning her in place.

The attacks came to a stop, and Waspguildy sneered as she slumped in his grip. "This will be easier than I thought! Is that all you have?!"

"Shut up, Pleb!" Isabella snapped, slamming her foot down on his in a vicious toe stomp that cracked the concrete.

"Arghhh!" He yelled, trying to pull away, only to be tackled around the waist by his smaller foe, who charged forward, pushing him as she did. A dumpster was bumped by the two as they passed and sent flying, scattering waste everywhere. Still, Tailpink continued her reckless charge until they left the alley, crossed the road, and crashed into the wall on the other side.

Waspguildy was sprawled on the ground, feeling pain all throughout his body, when Tailpink seized his ankle and swung him about, before flinging him up the road into a collection of Ultiroids who were knocked over like bowling pins.

Every Ultiroid that was in Waspguildy's path screamed in pain, as a light seemed to radiate out from inside before they exploded simultaneously. Ultiroids were launched into other Ultiroids, exploding and causing the one it's path to be sent flying and detonate as well. Dust and light blocked Tailpink's vision, and she covered her eyes instinctively. A huge cloud of smoke hung in the air after the explosion, and silence fell across the street as the stunned human spectators watched in disbelief.

"You know, I was wrong earlier." Waspguildy's sinister voice hissed out, heard loudly by everyone. The smoke parted from the air, revealing him standing there, unharmed except for some scuff marks on his exoskeleton. "I was hasty when I said those were fantastic Twintails."

Tailpink's eyes narrowed. "And what would a filthy little bug like you know?"

"When I first saw them I was overwhelmed, but now that I've had more time to think it over I've changed my mind." Waspguildy tilted his neck to the side, joints popping loudly as he did. "They're just gaudy, like a gold plated toilet. Those truly are the twintails of the _nouveau riche._"

_Oh, he did not just…_ Tailpink clenched her fist so hard the air made a whoosh as it passed through her fingers. "Care to say that again?"

"I think you heard me. I'm a veteran warrior of Ultimaguil, you see. I've traveled to countless worlds and seen many twintails, and your's are just _okay_. But some new money child like you would never understand true class!" He clenched all six fists in the air as he made his condemnation. "What I truly love, in addition to my love of twintails, is classy girls! Girls who understand true style! The truly beautiful is understated and subtle! Now, bear witness to the power of my love!" In one of his hands, a long pointed weapon materialised. It was coated in black and yellow stripes, coming to a viciously sharp tip almost five feet above his head. "Behold, my lance! A weapon of true nobility! Now be smote, **worm~!**" Waspguildy charged towards her from across the street.

"Princess, summon your own weapon! Just believe!" A voice called out, and toTailpink's left Orchidguildy stood at the mouth of the alley, one hand clutching his wounded torso.

Without pausing to question how he was still alive, Isabella imagined a weapon of some kind in her hand, and from a field of light a great warhammer appeared. She'd never held anything like it before, but somehow she understood the general idea. Turning to face her attacker and whipping her arms out as she did, she yelled the words that somehow sprang into her mind. "Heavenly BACKHAND!"

The weapon flew from her grip, glowing brightly and passing over Waspguildy's lance. The alien only had time to widen his eyes before the weapon crashed into his head and knocked him onto his back. He smashed into the ground, skidding for several metres and throwing up asphalt as he did.

"Is this how I die?" He gasped, light building inside him. "If so, then I have to say, though your twintails are not to my personal taste, they really are lovely-" Kaboom! A shockwave that dwarfed all the other appeared, and he disappeared.

Tailpink leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees and breathing out in relief.

"Well done, princess!" Orchidguildy praised. "Truly incredible! With this, I can take comfort before I die that the twintails of this world are truly safe!"

"Huh?!" Tailpink snarled, standing back up. "You think you can just dump this all on me and die?!"

"W-w-well, it's not really up to me-"

"Don't you _dare_!" Tailpink strode forward and dragged Orchidguildy's face down to her level by his cravat. "You're going to live long enough to explain all of this to me properly, or so help me, I'll beat you to death here myself!"

"...I mean, it's sort of an empty threat, but okay." After a moment he stopped glowing. "I, uh, guess I won't explode then?"

"Good!" She released him and he staggered back. "Now explain _everything _to me!"

"Uh, y-yes. Of course, I must start with this!" He pointed his hand, and Isabella followed his direction to a large metal ring floating in the middle of the street. "That's a tool used by the Elemerians to harvest Elemera. If you can destroy it within an hour of someone's attributes being stolen, they will return to the person they were taken from."

"Very well." Tailpink elegantly flipped her hair before walking over to where her hammer had fallen. Wielding it with both hands she brought it down heavily, and the alien device was violently distorted with a satisfying crunch of metal. After a moment it detonated.

"Ugh, I need things to stop exploding in my face!" Tailpink huffed, lowering her arm from her eyes.

"Well done, princess!" Orchidguildy clapped his hands together.

"Now. Where's your spaceship?"

"Uh, excuse me?" He blinked slowly

"I said, where is your spaceship?" Isabella turned to face him. "Or do you expect me to believe you walked here?"

"W-well, I hid it." Orchidguildy backed away a step. "If the other Elemerians found it, they would of course destroy it to prevent me from traveling to other worlds."

"Well, unless you expect me to have this conversation in broad daylight with a news crew watching-" She pointed a finger across the road to where a number of people were spilling out of a van marked channel 6. "-You had better take us somewhere you won't draw attention to yourself."

"Ah, yes…" He nodded quickly. "Please, follow me!" He turned and jumped, his powerful legs taking him off the street and to the top of a nearby building.

Isabella hesitated for a moment before leaping after him. Her landing was a little rough, she fell flat on her face, but she found herself unharmed and was able to follow the trail he led through the city to a small park near the centre of town.

"Your suit emits imagine chaf, making it impossible for anyone to recognise your civilian identity. To the world as a whole, you will be Tailpink, unless you transform where someone can see you." He pointed to a small public bathroom. "You can transform on that side, while I use the mens. Then we can go to any place of your choosing, where I will explain everything to you."

Isabella's nose wrinkled at the smell, but nodded after a moment. "Fine."

* * *

A half hour later, Isabella in her school uniform sat at a table inside a large cafe, across from a handsome young man with glasses who appeared to be about nineteen. Apparently this was Orchidguildy's human disguise, though he still wore that flower petal-like cravat in combination with a gold trimmed red coat. He looked utterly ridiculous.

_So embarrassing._ Isabella rolled her eyes.

"That should bring you up to speed on who the Elemerians are, why we're here, and basically everything else." He paused, looking at her expectantly.

Isabella took a breath, before raising her chai latte to her lips and carefully sipping so as not to get a froth mustache.

"Do you… have any questions?"

The cup clinked as Isabella placed it against the table. "What's that stupid thing?" She pointed at his cravat.

"This? It's nothing but a symbol of my commitment to protecting the twintails of the-"

"Okay, whatever." She could not listen to him prattle on for much longer. "So like, I don't see why I have to protect anyone else's Twintails? Other than me and my friends, there's probably no one in Nyapon who dresses like us."

"But the world at large has many more! Why, in Pawsaw I saw the most incredible pair of-"

"Oh my goodness, shut up, I don't care." Isabella snapped. "I love _my _Twintails, I don't care about some fatty uggo in Mew Zealand, or wherever."

"...B-b-but, that's not possible." Orchidguildy sputtered. "Only someone with a _sincere_ love of twintails could possibly use the suit like you did. Any love so narcissistic as what you're saying couldn't possibly-"

"Look, I don't care." She didn't bother to finish her drink. "Thanks for the suit, but I'm not gonna be part of your, like, war or whatever." Fishing about in her handbag, she found her phone and dialed her driver's number. "Good luck with your mission, I guess."

"B-b-but I only have the one suit!" He stood up. "Please, without it all-"

A waitress walked up behind him. "Excuse me sir, but do you intend to pay for that?" She indicated the half finished mug of latte.

"Uh, but she-" He looked back just in time to see the last of Isabella's pink drilltails disappear out the door. "She ordered it and… I'm, uh, I-I-I don't use currency?"

"Oh, dear." The waitress's smile dimmed slightly. "Then I think we're going to have to talk to my manager. Would you please come with me?"

"Uh… I-I-I didn't… Isabella! Please, come back! Isabella?!"

* * *

The next morning, Isabella's car pulled up to the school gates, and she walked in as if nothing had changed. She could've left the stupid bracelet at home, but then what if more of those aliens showed up at school? It's invisible to everyone other than her anyway, so why shouldn't she bring it?

It was completely normal for Isabella to be stared at and whispered about, so she didn't even notice the things that were being said. Compared to the usual attention she received, it barely registered in her mind that the things people were saying were a little more serious than the usual allegation of reckless spending and vanity.

"She used them as bait! And they were her friends."

"-can't believe someone would just abandon the people trying to protect them."

"-dangerous to everyone. If those aliens are after twintails, and she's walking around dressed like that, they might come here!"

The door to the classroom slid open, and Isabella claimed her normal seat. "Sup, Saki?"

There was no answer.

When Isabella glanced across, she saw a strange girl sitting in Saki's chair. The girl was of a similar height and build, but her skin was too pale and her hair was cut too short… _Wait a second._

"Saki, what the fuck are you wearing?"

Rather than answer, the girl shyly looked away.

"I'm talking to you!" Isabella leaned across the gap between their desks and slammed her hand down. "I said, what are you wearing?"

"...I'm sorry, Isabella." Saki seemed to shrink in on herself. "But it's just too embarrassing to be seen with you anymore…"

"What?!" Isabella stood up suddenly, towering over her newly demure friend. "What did you just say?!"

"She said you're a disgrace." One of the boys in the classroom stood up, and it took Isabella a moment to recognise him from karaoke the day before. "And that you tricked us into attacking that bug thing before running away!"

"I didn't ask you, _loser_!" An ugly, angry sneer came over Isabella's features. "Who _exactly_ do you think you're talking to?"

"A spoilt rotten _brat!_" He snapped right back. "Who _no one _can stand! Everyone hates you!"

"Whatever!" She dismissed him with a wave of her hand, before standing up and strutting out of the classroom angrily.

"She's just the worst." Someone moaned as Isabella slammed the door shut behind her.

When she came to the classroom next door she found Yuri dressed similarly to Saki. _What is going on?! _Her pace picked up speed, and she even ignored the sound of the morning bell to run from room to room to check all her friends. She found them in a similar state to Saki. "What's happening?!" She hissed.

Checking her phone again, she found no texts or private messages from any of her friends that explained the sudden change in their attitudes. It was only as she was flipping through their online profiles for clues and she happened to pass over an old picture of her and Hinata together that she realised what had happened.

Her hair was done up in a pair of plain, childish twintails while Hinata's was flat and straight. Yet, in Isabella's memories, when that photo was taken both of them had their hair up together...

When she checked every photo she had of her friends, she found the same story again, and again. Hair down, even when the photos were specifically taken to show off different styles of twintails.

Isabella put a hand over her mouth, and thumbed through more photos. Their twintail attributes were gone for all time… Past, present, and future. The things she and her friends loved together were gone. Even their stupid fake tans...

_While I was outside, some of those Ultiroids must have stayed inside and used one of those rings on them._

Isabella threw the door to classroom open, right in the middle of the teacher's roll call.

"You're awfully bold for someone late to-"

"Shut up!" Isabella dismissed him and walked straight up to her friend. "Saki… You. What happened to your twintails?"

"...I could never wear something like that, though?" Saki couldn't even look up to meet her gaze. "Please, you're embarrassing me."

Water welled in Isabella's eyes and she snarled angrily. "Whatever!" Snatching up her bag again, she walked out of the room. "See if I care?! I don't need you anyway. I don't need any of you!"

* * *

Orchidguildy sighed as he swept the crumbs from between the tables. He hadn't been able to pay for the tea, but the owner had been willing to let him go in exchange for a day's work. He was an Elemerian! He still had his pride, though the apron they forced him to wear made that hard to remember…

The bell to the cafe rung, and a familiar pair of pink drill tails walked in.

"Isabella?" He asked, a hopeful tone in his voice. "Have you reconsidered?"

"Take that off!" She demanded, looking at his apron.

"But I need to-"

Isabella threw a wad of cash at the waitress behind the register. "He's done here." Then she turned and walked out again.

Orchidguildy was so shocked it took him a long moment to get his apron strings untied.

"Orchidguildy!" Isabella's shrill voice barked from outside. "Hurry up!"

"R-r-right away!" He yanked the apron over his head and rushed out after her.


	6. 06 Heart of Darkness

A full week went by before Souji, desperate for something to do, ended up visiting Aika's grandfather. The start of his summer holiday was spent lazing about, reading light novels and manga until he was bored of it. It turns out that reading about intense super powered battles wasn't so interesting or exciting when they were a part of your everyday life. He managed to get his homework done thanks to two separate visits from Erina, and after that they played video games for a while. Souji was amused by how bad she was, though they both had fun.

On other days he discovered video games weren't as much fun without someone to play with, and he wondered what his friends in space were up to... Probably coming to the end of Dragon Sphere and about to start on Dragon Sphere X, assuming Twoearle hadn't been killed yet. He browsed countless pictures of twintails online, but found they weren't as fun as the real thing. Maybe he could try nagging Aika into trying some of the different styles when she got back… It was only when he thought of her that he finally remembered she'd asked him to do something before she left, so after telling his mother where he was going, he put on his shoes and walked across town to see the old man.

From what Soji understood, the elder Tsube was rarely busy, being a semi-retired karate instructor, so it shouldn't be too much of a bother for him to suddenly show up. It was only after he set out that Souji realised he probably should have asked his mother to drive him. The utterly oppressive heat of Japan's summer beat down on him, driving the energy from his body. He was sweating badly enough that he felt like he needed a bottle of water to recover the moisture.

"Screw it!" He snapped after his patience wore thing, and transformed into Tailred behind a bush. Immediately he felt cooler. The suit was insulated enough that Twoearle said it should be safe to wear in the middle of burning napalm, so it was more than sufficient for this. It wasn't exactly a responsible way to use the power, but neither was feeling up his twintails in the bathroom alone, anyway. The rest of the journey was spent leaping from building to building. A couple of people saw him traveling this way, but the Imagine Chaff would protect his secret as long as no one saw him transform. He found an empty car park to turn back into his normal form, just a block away from the dojo and reluctantly dragged himself the rest of the way there on foot.

The building looked unchanged from his memories. The weathered, traditional, sloped roof seemed almost ancient, though he knew it was only fifty years old in reality. As he walked up the path towards it, he saw a small number of young children leaving the front door with what he assumed were their parents. He hoped it was air conditioned inside, though knowing Aika's sadistic grandfather, he doubted it.

When he stepped inside he smelled the familiar odor of floor wax and multiple generations of different people's sweat. There was a class inside, doing their katas in a big group, though the instructor wasn't Uncle Kenta, but a middle aged man Souji didn't recognise. Looking around the room, he spotted Kenta Tsube leaning against one wall, watching the students but not giving any indication that he had any plans to involve himself in their education.

"Good afternoon, Uncle Kenta." Souji greeted with a respectful bow after making his way over.

The old man glanced at the youth from the corner of his eye before returning his gaze to the students. "Have you kept up your practice, boy?"

"Er, Aika's sparred with me a little." Souji scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"So that's a no, then." Kenta half smiled. "Well, no time like the present to knock the dust off. You know where the changing rooms are. Did you need a gi?"

"Yes, thank you." Souji bowed again.

Just like that, his relaxing afternoon disappeared. Kenta ran him through a grueling series of exercises, and strictly demanded perfect form when he did. It had been such a long time since he'd visited that at first he felt embarrassed by how many mistakes he was making. After the first hour, the forms and exercises began to feel familiar again, and he was more confident. Sweat poured off him in waves, and he often found himself tired and gasping for air.

"You've gone backwards in your skills and conditioning." Kenta commented while Souji lay flat on his back. "But your older now, so that would explain why your stamina and strength is better, at least. You seem to be getting at least some exercise at any rate."

"Should I come back tomorrow?" Souji sat up, wiping the sweat from his eye.

"Do you intend to start practicing more seriously again?"

"...I could over the summer holidays, but once school starts I'm not sure if I'll have time." If the Elemerians came back he'd be particularly pressed.

Kenta held out a hand to forestall him. "Then I'm not interested in a student who's not willing to fully dedicate himself."

"Sorry." Souji apologised lamely.

"That's fine." Kenta held out a hand to help the young man to his feet. "I understand not everyone is willing to work as hard as Aika for a skill that will rarely prove useful."

"Aika definitely puts it to good use, though." Souji hurried to reassure him. After all, in her heroic persona, Aika was putting karate to use almost daily.

"Oh?" Kenta raised an eyebrow slowly. "In what way?"

_Crap._ There was no way Souji could tell him about Tailblue. "Uh… Just, generally?"

"Oh, generally?" Kenta nodded in understanding though he sounded bemused. "She just generally attacks people?"

"Y-yeah-I mean no, definitely not." Then Souji thought about Twoearle's frequent injuries. "I mean, yeah a little?"

"I see." A small smile appeared on Kenta's face. "That's good then."

"It's good that she attacks people?" Souji blurted out, bewildered.

"Well, I'd hate for her to practice so much and have all that effort go to waste." Kenta turned around and walked outside. "Come see me once you've showered and changed. We'll talk."

The dojo's locker room wasn't anything special, but at least Souji had it to himself. The showers were old and it took a while for the water to heat up, but the tiles were clean and there was no trace of mold anywhere. The soap and shampoo were generic home brands that smelled of nothing, but weren't unpleasant.

Souji felt refreshed as he stepped out into the small rock garden behind the dojo. The sun was low, turning the sky a deep red, and he found the old man sitting at a table with two glasses and a pitcher of ice cold barley tea. Without saying a word, Kenta poured a glass as Souji sat down across from him. The dojo sat at the edge of town, so it was right at the base of the mountains that hemmed the town in from one side. They had an excellent view uphill from the shade of the porch.

"I suppose I want to ask you what my granddaughter has been doing lately, and why it dragged her away from the family." Kenta began. "But then I imagine if she can't explain it to me, you can't very well, either?"

"Sorry, Uncle Kenta."

The old man nodded slowly, taking a sip of his tea. "I'm going to guess what she's doing isn't very safe, either. After all, you say she's putting the skills I taught her to good use."

Souji just kept his mouth shut, though he suspected that was confirmation enough.

"When she started coming to practice tired, I thought she'd gotten involved with some delinquents, but then no bodies appeared, so I assumed it wasn't that."

"Wait. '_Bodies'_?"

"You think I would teach my own flesh and blood any form of martial art that wasn't to be taken seriously?" Kenta smiled at Souji gently, as if explaining things to a child. "Some mere delinquent certainly wouldn't survive a fight with her."

"...Right, yeah." It was easier to just nod without thinking about it too heavily. "I've seen her bring some moves out that would almost certainly be illegal in a tournament."

"That depends on the kind of tournament." Kenta leaned back in his chair. "But regardless, when I asked some friends who run a number of underground coliseums, the sort where those sorts of moves would be permitted, they had no idea what I was talking about. I was disappointed and puzzled."

"Wait, those kinds of tournaments actually exist?" My eyebrows came together. "And what do you mean 'disappointed'?!"

"And now I sit here, a worried old man." He finished his tea with a sip, and looked over at Souji. "I'm not supposed to say this, but she is definitely my favourite grandchild. Do you understand what I'm getting at boy?"

"I-I don't think I follow." Souji admitted.

"That's fine… Put another way, if anything happens I'll hold you responsible. I think that sounds fair to me. Does that sound fair to you?"

Protecting Aika was a given, or so Souji reasoned to himself. Not to mention she very rarely needed to be saved, anyway. With less than a second's hesitation Souji confidently said. "Absolutely, sir. I'll do my best to keep her safe."

"Oh, no, definitely don't do that. I see you don't understand me." Shaking his head bemusedly, Kenta explained more plainly. "You need to try and reign her in, boy. She's too savage."

"Uh…" Souji was surprised for a moment, and then in his mind he recalled images of Aika ruthlessly beating numerous Elemerians to death when she could have used her finishing move. There was also the many potentially deadly attacks she often visited on Twoearle. Not to mention the numerous bruises she left on him. "That… makes sense, yeah." _Twoearle really is in danger…_

"You see, there's darkness in the hearts of men, boy." A slow breath escaped Kenta, and he looked up at the mountains wistfully. "That's why men need women. Or at least that's why some men need a certain kind of woman, to balance out their darker instincts with compassionate temperance. That's very much how things were with me. In my youth I was quite… Hm, well, those days have passed and the less said about them the better."

"I think see where you're going with this." Souji sighed and took a long sip of his barely tea. "Aika is a lot like you, then."

"Yes, she has that same cruel heart that craves destruction, and is in need of a certain other to temper it. Sadly for her, most men very sanely want a softer and gentler kind of woman. The kind of man she needs is a rare one." His eyes turned to Souji, and Kenta observed his reaction carefully.

It was easy for Souji to see what he was getting at. There were very few men in this world strong enough to withstand a woman like Aika, while at the same time being gentle enough to sand down her rough edges. At the same time they would have to even be attracted to a rude gorilla girl with no breasts at all… _It's almost sad._ Aika had a lot of other good traits as well, it would just be hard to notice them when she was punching your teeth out…

"You're asking me to please take care of her, then." Souji nodded. "Alright, no problem. I'll definitely keep her from doing something that she will regret later."

For the last few months, Aika's bloodlust had been slaked by thwarting raids from the Elemerians, but Souji had definitely noticed her getting more and more agitated in their absence. Maybe it really was a good thing that they'd sent her to another world. _Wait, no that's really bad._ Prickles of sweat started to form on the back of Souji's neck as he thought of cities of innocent cat girls burning to ash because too many of them teased Tail Blue for wearing an AAA-cup.

"Oh, what have we done?" Souji groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You've given me a lot to think about, Uncle Kenta."

"Mmhm." Kenta poured himself another glass of tea. "Think very carefully about what she means to you."

"Definitely." Souji promised. "And um… Thanks for talking to me about this."

"That's fine."

For Souji, other things about Aika began to fit in place in his mind. "The reason you taught her karate was so she could learn temperance and self control, then?"

"Hm? Oh, no. Definitely not. You don't learn temperance by relentlessly practicing the perfect way to break a man." That small smile returned.

"Then why did you...?"

"I said my darker side was tempered, not neutered, boy. Really, I just enjoyed watching her grow like that. Oh, if she were a man the things she could do…" He chuckled to himself. "But then again, I've never met another man who was able to break steel with their bare foot either, so it doesn't seem to have mattered much."

"...She can kick through steel?" Disbelief crept into Souji's voice, and then he remembered Twoearle's attempt to restrain Aika with a collection of bear traps built into a chair. Without even transforming, Aika had ripped through them just by moving her arms. "Actually, I could believe it."

"It's the most amazing thing to watch. Somehow inside those skinny arms and legs is limitless potential. These last few months in particular she's been growing out of control…"

* * *

It was day seven of their journey, and every single one of Twoearle's anti-Aika measures had already failed. A disappointing result, but not an entirely unexpected one. She had at least hoped the Kickbutt bot MK 2 would slow her down a little, or maybe force her to transform into Tail Blue. Instead Aika had ripped the still beating processor from its chest, and used it to bludgeon Twoearle into unconsciousness, which was actually an even worse result than the MK 1.

"For goodness sake, Twoearle, put on some pants!" Aika sure had a shrill voice for being such a manly woman.

"It's not like you haven't seen it all before." Twoearle rolled her eyes, popping another chip in her mouth. "Relax, we're both girls."  
"And why am I doing your dishes?!" Aika continued to rant, angrily rubbing at the plate in her hands with a scouring pad. "There's just the two of us, it shouldn't be that hard to keep this place clean!"

What was Aika even complaining about? Twoearle surveilled the room from her seat. Yeah, there were some clothes scattered about the bridge, and a few empty cans of black coffee, but it wasn't that bad. "It's not like I'm asking you to clean up after me." Twoearle grumbled under her breath.

"What was that?!" Aika snapped in challenging tone.

From behind her, Twoearle heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and she shrunk into her seat. "N-nothing."

"No, I'm curious." A strong hand pinched Twoearle's ear and dragged her up in her chair.

"Ow! Ow! Stop!"  
"Why don't you tell me what you said?"

"I-I-I just wanted to know when you were going to do your karate practice?" Swallowing nervously, Twoearle forced a brittle smile onto her face.

"What, so you can watch more porn again?" Aika growled angrily, before letting go.

"I don't know why that upset you so much?" _That really hurt. _Twoearle rubbed her ear, falling back into the chair. "I waited until you were out of the room."

"It upsets me, because you didn't even bother to clean up afterwards! I can smell it you know?!" Aika voice rose again, and Twoearle winced instinctively, raising her hands to protect her face.

"I did! I did clean! I just… just went for a round two, I thought you'd be gone a few more hours."

"I don't want to know about that!" Aika squealed, blushing and clenching her fist threateningly. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Please, just go do your karate!" Twoearle jumped out of her chair, circling around it so it was between her and the threat. "I'm a red blooded young woman, I need my space!"

"You're disgusting." Aika growled. "And not until you help me clean this place up!"

"Fine!" A desperate note hitched Twoearle's voice upwards. "I promise I'll help, just don't hit me!"

After that they spent the next twenty minutes in relative silence, working on cleaning the deck, doing the laundry, and just generally tidying the place up. As she threw her clothes into the washing machine, Twoearle kept shooting looks at Aika's back. That little tyrant was just too much to bear, there had to be something that could be done. _Working me to the bone like this! Honestly, who does she think she is?_

The only time Twoearle had out from under Aika's thumb was when the little barbarian was asleep, or practicing karate. Was there a way she could convince her to increase her time working out?

"How, uh, how goes the ol' martial arts anyway?" Twoearle began, faux casual. "Are you, erm, making progress?"

She hadn't thought that question was especially suspicious, though Aika still eyed her warily. _Why? I'm harmless and pretty so just leave me alone._

"A lot actually." Aika answered after a moment. "Without anything else to distract me, I've really increased the time I spend on everything. Precision, power, flexibility, resistance training, all of it. We didn't bring a treadmill, though, so I can't do as much aerobic exercise as I'd like."

"Oh." Twoearle frowned. "Really? I haven't paid a lot of attention. How long each day?"

"My morning and afternoon sessions are three hours each."

"That much?!" Twoearle sputtered in disbelief. "Geeze, that's where all the food you eat goes! That's as much as a professional athlete!"

Aika narrowed her eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, just curious I guess." Quickly, Twoearle averted her gaze and went back to work. "You don't usually seem exhausted, though?"

"It actually does leave me pretty tired." Did it really though? She was just as energetic in punishing Twoearle after each session as she was before, if experience was anything to go by. "Besides, it's not really healthy to do too much more than that. There's a limit to what the body can process, you know?"

Aika was right about that, Twoearle knew. Geeze, for a sixteen year old girl it was already way too intense! No wonder she was so skinny. Glancing from the corner of her eye while keeping her head down so as not to arouse suspicion, Twoearle observed the subtle definition of the muscles in Aika's arms and sighed to herself. _Is she just a freak of nature?_

"And you're not exhausted? A girl your age should barely able to move after a day like that…"

Aika just shrugged.

After they finished, and the barbarian had left the room, Twoearle found herself with time to try and ponder a solution to her problem. There had to be some way to keep Aika occupied. _Maybe just lock the door when she's inside? She couldn't break through a blast door with her bare hands could she?_ Twoearle shook her head to herself after a moment. _No, even if she can't she'd just turn into Tail Blue and tear it up like paper._

Sighing, she hit play on the remote, and on the screen Roku resumed doing handstand pushups in 20x Earth's gravity. Dragon Sphere had turned out to be a pretty good show. Twoearle wouldn't say she was the biggest fan, but some of the battles were truly spectacular, and lots of the plotlines were really heartfelt. Roku was easy to like as a protagonist, though it was obnoxious how he took screen time away from a lot of other more interesting characters.

_No way that would work in real life._ Twoearle chuckled as she watched the screen. _Twenty times earth's gravity would kill you pretty quickly. Even if you were a freak of nature like-_

Twoearle sat up suddenly, and paused the episode. _It wouldn't have to be twenty times earth's gravity, it wouldn't have to hurt her..._ A little voice in the back of her head suggested. _But just a small increase, not much, but just a small amount would tire her out pretty significantly._

Another voice in Twoearle's head gave a different warning. _What if she finds out, though? She'll be really angry._

The obvious counter argument sprang to mind. _But when isn't she angry? If you do this, she'll at least be too tired to do anything with that anger._

Leaning forward over the bridge console, Twoearle pushed a few buttons until she brought up a feed of the training room. It looked like Aika was doing one handed pushups, probably as a warm up. On another screen, Twoearle brought up engineering and artificial gravity. Apparently there was a feature that allowed her to set gravity for rooms individually. It might have been intended to help resist boarding parties or something like that.

"It doesn't have to be much. Just… Let's go with… One point two times, and see where that takes us." She moved the cursor down to the training room window and typed in the new setting. "Yeah, this will probably be enough…" Then she hit enter.

There was no immediate visible result in Aika's workout, so apparently she hadn't noticed the change. Twoearle watched for a little while longer, worried about any signs of injury, but got bored around the time Aika counted to sixty five on her left arm.

"Yeah, she'll be fine." Twoearle minimised the feed, and brought Dragon Sphere up again. She hit play, and soon forgot about it.

A few hours later, a gasping Aika staggered out of the training room and onto the bridge, running her hands through her sweat soaked hair. She muttered to herself in a disbelieving voice. "I think I'm going backwards? Was it the diet?"

_Success!_ Twoearle clenched her fist out of view.


	7. 07 Spreading Fame

Initially, Twoearle's plan to have Aika utterly exhaust herself each day went really well. By the end of the first day working under increased gravity, the flat chested barbarian was far too tired to even halfheartedly nag at Twoearle. Completely tuckered out, she collapsed into her chair and placidly watched half a dozen episodes of the Splice Arc without commentary.

This was a perfect success, and the exact result Twoearle was hoping for. The problem emerged two days later, when Aika completed the same workout under increased gravity without too much strain, and was back to her usual brutish self. _Well, if she was fine with one point two times earth's gravity, she'll be fine with one point five… _ Or so Twoearle thought at the time. With the simple input of a command, Aika was back to being bone dead tired, and no longer a threat to Twoearle's sanity or well being. She repeated the same solution whenever the same problem emerged, by simply incrementing up the gravity settings in the training room.

The entire time, Twoearle was largely satisfied. By the parameters of what she initially set out to do, she had fully succeeded in getting Aika out of her hair. It was when another problem emerged two weeks later, that the mad scientist started to get a little bit scared.

"Hey, can you do medical check up for me?" Aika asked one morning as she cooked their breakfast, frowning worriedly at the back of Twoearle's head while the scientist herself sat and watched anime.

"Eh, I don't play doctor with people your age. Even with that A-cup, you're really not my type." The quip escaped her before Twoearle even thought about it, and immediately every survival instinct had screamed at her in sheer panic. Without fully understanding why, she threw herself to the deck and covered her head with both hands, as the sound of a metal bar breaking sounded behind and over her head. When she rolled over to look back, she found Aika's fist had snapped through the chair's upper support like it had been dry kindling. _If I'd still been sitting there I'd be dead!_

Aika looked just as surprised as Twoearle did. "What was that made of?" The girl checked her knuckles. "That didn't feel very strong at all."

_Titanium. _"Uh… You know, like cheap tin or something I guess?" Twoearle laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head as prickles of sweat started to form. "Um, you needed my medical skills?"

"Yeah." Aika followed the change in topic without suspicion. "I keep getting different results from my regime. Some days I can barely do it, but then on others I'm able to complete it like normal.

"Uh… fluctuations in the life support, maybe?" Twoearle answered quickly. "It could be something's making the air in your room a little thin."

"What, like a leak?" Aika sounded worried.

"Uh, probably nothing like that!" Twoearle reassured. "Or maybe you're just a little under the weather, and your body can't quite kick the infection because you keep pushing yourself so hard."

"Oh, do I have a fever?" Aika placed one hand against her forehead, and reached out with the other toward Twoearle.

Like a terrified prey animal, Twoearle froze on the spot, paralysed and trembling as that calloused hand was pressed gently against her brow. Her eyes kept darting down to the broken chair in front of her. _She might kill me by accident._ Twoearle swallowed. _And if she finds out she'll kill me on purpose!_

"You seem fine to me." A small, but level voice escaped Twoearle. "I'll check the life support right away."

"Okay, thanks." The monster stepped away and went to cook her next nine course meal or whatever it was she did.

Twoearle darted down the hall to engineering, where she accessed the ships gravity controls, and checked the dojo's recent settings. _Two and a half times earth's gravity!_ She gasped, her eyes widening in disbelief at the control panel. _When did it get so high?!_

There comes a time in every mad scientist's life, when they are faced with the potentially dangerous outcome of one of their own experiments, and they're left with a choice. Bail with the results you have, or keep going? Are you the sort of mad scientist that lives to see another day, or will you be overcome by your curiosity?

For Twoearle the decision was easy. The gravity in the training room was left at 1x Earth's, and it was going to stay there from now on.

When she stepped back onto the bridge, she found Aika standing in the middle of the bridge, watching the main screen intently. Though it was muted, Twoearle quickly recognised the clip that was playing from her collection. Her adult movie collection.

"What the hell is this?!" Aika screached, turning around to glare at Twoearle while pointing at the screen. "Those girls are not old enough to be doing that!"

"Th-th-they just look young, I swear they're all eighteen!" She immediately started backing away from the rapidly approaching shorter girl. "P-p-please, Aika, you were the one looking at-"

"I was trying to find something to watch! Why isn't that folder password protected? More importantly why was it labeled 'Kids Movies'?!"

"Don't kill me, please!" Twoearle huddled into a ball on the ground in front of her. "Please, just don't hit me!"

Something in her tone seemed to catch Aika off guard, and a surprised look came over her face. "Oy, what are you doing?"

"Anything. I. beg. of. you. spare. me!" Twoearle was hyperventilating, her imagination turning out memories of finisher moves from a certain 2d fighting game being carried out on her own body. "Ineedmyspineforsomanythings!"

"It's okay, alright." Aika took a step back and crossed her arms, looking away and huffing out, guiltily. "Just, delete it and I'll forgive you."

"I promise!" -_To hide the folder where you'll never see it! _

"Okay, then." Aika agreed, still not sure how to deal with Twoearle when she was so clearly terrified. "Are you okay, though?"

"Yes, Aika the great is so very merciful." Twoearle pulled her legs and arms up under her body so she was bowing down toadie style.

"What's up with you?" Aika coughed into her hand. "I'm gonna take a shower, so try not to have another panic attack or whatever."

It was only when Aika left the room that the trembling in Twoearle's limbs stopped and her heart rate returned to normal. _I really thought I was gonna die!_ One back hand from Aika at this point would probably snap someone's neck… _I can't live like this!_ Climbing to her feet, she walked over to the sink on wobbly knees and got herself a calming drink of water. _I need to tell her so she doesn't hurt me by accident._

Twoearle winced. _But then she'll just hurt me on purpose instead. What do I do? Think, girl. Think._

Telling her now could lead to serious injury, but not telling her might do the same… _Maybe if she was exhausted when I tell her?_ Maybe Twoearle could simply set the gravity to 3x earth for the next day, and then drop the truth on Aika at the end of the day when she's too tired to do anything? But that wouldn't leave Twoearle anywhere to hide when the little monster recovered…

_There's only about two weeks until we arrive… Could I just keep the gravity training going, being careful to keep her as exhausted as possible, and then reveal it to her over the communicators when she's out of the ship? After that I can just wait in the upper atmosphere until she calms down…_

"No, she's my friend." Twoearle shook her head. "I couldn't do something like that to her." Glancing across the room to the screen, she paused at the image of her delicious little folder, and thought of Aika's order to destroy it. _And that would be just such a waste..._"Then again." She reasoned to herself aloud. "This still solves my original problem of keeping her occupied…"

After another moment's contemplation, she walked over to the computer and hid the file, before setting a password as well for good measure.

_Yeah. That's right. What Aika doesn't know, won't hurt her._

"Or me."

* * *

One day, in Pawland, the peaceful morning of an Orphanage was interrupted by a loud intruder.

"Bwa-ha-hah!" The giant alien with an armoured black shell cried. "I'm Rhinocerobeatleguildy, and I'm here to steal your Twintail attribute!"

Many of the young children ran screaming in all directions. Others just stared up at the curiosity, not sure if they should be scared or not. Some of them just fell to the ground on the spot, crying loudly until they were scooped up by the attending swarm of Ultiroids.

"What are you doing?!" A beautiful cat woman in a habit cried, running forward and clutching at the hem of her robes. Her conservative garb wasn't enough to hide her shapely hips and breasts. "Leave the children alone! This is a church!"

"Ah, a nun." Rhinocerobeatleguildy exhaled in delight, and held out his hand to one side. A waiting Ultiroid scampered forward to place a delicate set of spectacles in the alien's palm, and the invader afixed them to his face with his thumb and forefinger. "Oh, excellent. I love nun's, you see. Tell me, Sister, are you the one who gave all these girls Twintails?"

"What do you mean? Please leave them be." The sister replied, only to have her arms seized by two Ultiroids who dragged her forward to kneel at Rhinocerobeatleguildy's feet.

"They won't be harmed, I promise. As I was saying, someone had to do these children's hair, and I doubt it was the father."

"I-I thought it looked nice on the girls, and it made them happy." She admitted, and swallowed in fear. "You-you're a demon, drawn here by my decadence aren't you?"

"I'm not a demon, but I was drawn here by your and their love of Twintails." Rhinocerobeatleguildy laughed and sighed with contentment. "Tell me sister, do you…?" His giant hand reached out, and the sister flinched, but it passed her face, and flipped up the back of her shawl, revealing a plain, but excellent pair of twintails. "Oh! Oh, it's so wonderful!" Tears sprang in Rhinocerobeatleguildy's eyes. "So chaste! So modest! And a hint of something naughty! Nun's truly are the greatest!"

"S-s-s-" The nun whimpered, and pressed her palms together. "S-save us, lord!"

"Even better!" Rhinocerobeatleguildy laughed. "This is incredible! This is everything I dreamed of! I knew it, a nun with Twintails really did exist! Bwa-ha-ha-h-"

"Heavenly BACKHAND!" A new voice declared loudly, and a giant warhammer slammed into the side of Rhinocerobeatleguildy's head. He was launched a dozen meters where he crashed through the fence that surrounded the yard.

He lay on his back, staring up at the heavens amid the splinters. "Is this how I die? After finally meeting a nun with beautiful Twint-"

The explosion destroyed him completely.

One of the Ultiroids who saw this screamed, before he was struck in the chin by the same warhammer, and was launched into the sky to meet a similar fate. The rest of the Ulitiroids barely had time to react, before they too were sent flying to detonate like fireworks above the church.

"Are there anymore?" An attractive young woman with a vast set of twin drilltails and high-tech battle armour asked, looking around the yard as she leaned on the haft of her weapon.

"I think you got them!" An attractive young man in a flower petal cravat at her side answered. "Truly excellent work, Princess!"

The sister slowly stood from kneeling. "Are you an angel of our Lord, here to save us?"

"Uh, I'm not even Catolic, lady." Hefting the weapon over her shoulder, she frowned at the sister. "I'm Tailpink? Don't you, like, ever watch the news?"

"We can't afford a TV." The sister answered honestly. "But regardless, thank you so much for saving us."

"Yeah, whatever." Tailpink snapped her fingers at her attendant. "Handbag!"

"Right away!" The man placed a fashionable designer bag in her hands.

From the bag, Tailpink withdrew a chequebook, and flipped it open. Scribbling down what she guessed to be a large sum, she ripped out the page and gave it to the sister. "That should like, cover repairs, I guess. You'll need to convert it to whatever currency you people use."

"I-I can't possibly accept this!" The sister sputtered, holding the page back out to her. "You've already helped us so much!"

"Look, it's not even my money, I just wanna make daddy mad. Like, buy a tv with it or something, you can see yourself on it tonight." Tailpink waved a hand over to the hole in the fence where a handful of news crews were gathering on the other side. "I gotta bail, later."

The strange young warrior and her attendant leapt away to a nearby rooftop, where a spaceship was waiting to fly them away.

* * *

The city of Meow York was disrupted one day by the arrival of an alien intruder. Grand Central station was subject to an attack by a feathered and taloned birdman.

"I'm Vultureguildy, and I'm here to harvest Twintail Attribute!"

"Heavenly BACKHAND!"

"Such power! Is this how I die?" Vultureguildy exploded.

"What a loser." Tailpink strutted away, sneering. "Here, have some money, plebs."

* * *

In tropical Pataguay, a football game was interrupted by an unwanted alien visitor.

"Bow before the might of Ultimeguil, and it's famed lieutenant, Cricketguildy!"

"Heavenly BACKHAND!"

"Oh no!" Cricketguildy exploded.

* * *

In the great cultural hub of Pawris a car was overturned by a laughing insect man at the base of the famous Scratchpole Tower.

"You bare witness to the famed, Mosquitoguildy-"

"Heavenly BACKHAND!"

"Ee gads, I am smote!"

* * *

The struggling country of Meowritania was dealt a vicious blow by aliens who smashed through the front of its capital building.

"Ladybuguildy-"

"Heavenly BACKHAND!"

"Ahhhhhhh!" He exploded.

"Don't worry I can totally pay for that. Pretty sure daddy makes more in a year than like, your GDP or whatever."

* * *

"Ultiroids! Where'd you go? Guys?!"

In Nyanmar, an alien walked down an abandoned street, nervously touching his fingers together and flinching at every sound. An especially loud noise came from over his shoulder and he spun to face it, only to find a dog had knocked over an empty can and ran off. Sighing in relief, he turned to his front, and screamed at the sight of Tailpink who was suddenly before him.

"Please, don't kill me! My name is Walkingstickguildy, and I'm here because of peer pressur-"

"Heavenly BACKHAND!"

* * *

"Your recent string of victories is incredible, Princess!" Orchidguildy gushed, following along behind Isabella as they walked through a mall. Boxes and bags were piled up in his arms almost to the height of his eyes. "With you as their guardian, the twintails of this world are sure to be safe!"

"I know." Isabella smirked, pausing in front of a shopfront that displayed a dummy wearing a nice green short skirt. She posed so her reflection's hips were over the article. "Do you think this would look good on me?"

"It is getting warmer, maybe a sundress, Princess?" Orchidguildy suggested.

"Hmm, maybe." Isabella stepped away from the window. "If I find some nice shoes to go with it."

"Look at that, Princess!" Orchidguildy's hands were occupied, so he tilted his head towards a pair of young girls who were running around in messy twintails. "You're inspiring people."

"Whatever." Behind her sunglasses, Isabella rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips that she hid by turning her head away.

"O-oh." Orchidguildy's expression fell, and his shoulders sagged causing the piled boxes in his hands to wobble, before they tumbled to the ground. "Ah, oh no!"

"Hey, be careful!" She scolded him. From her pocket came the sound of her phone ringing and when she flipped it open, the number displayed was one that caused her to freeze up. A lump developed in the back of her throat, and she swallowed nervously, letting the phone ring two more times before picking up. "Daddy?"

"Isabella, where are you?" An older man's voice asked, deep and bass.

"Oh, you know. Shopping." Her voice almost sounded brittle, so she swapped her phone from one ear to the other, taking the chance to compose herself. "Why, what's up?"

"Your brother already looked for you at the mall, and none of the staff saw you leave. Your mother is worried sick, where are you?"

"Like I said, I'm shopping." Isabella smirked, looking across the foodcourt to where a sign proclaimed it was selling Meowxican food. "In Catifornia."

"...You're in Catifornia?"

"Yeah, I heard there was a sale."

"...That might explain how you're spending so much."

"Hmm? It's not like we're budgeting."

"Get on the next flight back to Nyapon."

"I think I'm gonna stick around here, though? I haven't visited any of the studios yet."

"Your mother is panicking. Get back here now."

"That's funny, _Daddy_, I'm not sure why she'd be so upset? I mean, it's not like she's seen my face in the last three months anyway."

"I have a meeting in ten minutes, I don't have time for this."

Isabella clenched her jaw angrily, but she kept her voice cheerful. "Oh, your new mistress?"

"What did you just say?" The voice went down an octave.

"Your new mistress. I assume you have one?"

"I'm not going to talk about this with you." He growled.

"Oh, no I'm not judging you, I get it. I remember you had lots of time for me and Mom until you married her. Now you've got lots of time for whatever dumb slut is next, and my new little brother. Or sister, whichever."

There was complete silence from the other end of the phone, until there was a clack and a long beep.

"Hah-ha-ha!" Isabella chuckled to herself, and rubbed at her eyes as tears threatened to well over. "You should have heard him, he was so mad!"

Orchidguildy watched the back of her head, not saying anything.


	8. 08 In Space Who Can Hear Twoearle Scream

The summer holidays had worn on for Souji, and for the dozenth time he fell onto his bed and wondered what he should do. Out his window, directly across from him, Aika's bedroom window was still closed and the curtains were drawn. The trip was supposed to take nearly forty days, and it had only been two weeks, so she and Twoearle were probably still in space. _They're probably driving each other crazy._

"Since when was it so hard to find something to do?" Souji groaned, sitting up. Maybe he should try talking to some of the other students from school? Complaining of boredom to his mother only ever earned him chores so he knew better than to do that. Uncle Kenta had also made it plain he wouldn't train Souji for free if he wasn't willing to commit more time to it.

Actually, that was a thought. Maybe training karate wasn't quite worth it, but surely there were things he could work on as a Tailsuit Warrior? Even just some basic swordsmanship couldn't hurt, though he was starting to have some other ideas as well...

The phone rang a few more times before it was answered. "Shindo residence, may I ask who's calling."

"Hello, Mikoto, is Erina there?"

"Ah, Souji. I will see if she is available."

The Tsube family was rich enough that it was able to afford it's own elevator music for when you were put on hold, and whoever they hired to play the koto was talented enough to not come cheap, either.

"Good morning to you, Souji." Erina's voice came over the phone less than a minute later.

"Hello, President." He answered cheerfully. "Are you busy today?"

"I'm afraid I am, but that doesn't mean I can't make time for you." Erina replied. "Did you have something you wanted to do with me?"

"Yeah." Souji scratched his head. "It wasn't important, but I was thinking it might be a good idea for us to train with our Tailsuits a little bit. For one thing, you're not yet in control of yourself when transformed, which might be something we can work on, and I had a few ideas I wanted to experiment with as well."

"That sounds great!" For someone who normally had such a busy schedule, her voice came across as rather eager to Souji's ear. He guessed she must just want a break from her usual duties. "Mikoto can take us out to the old quarry again, if that suits you?"

"That's exactly what I had in mind, how about after lunch?"

"It's a date!" After that they exchanged goodbyes, and she hung up.

Well, at least it didn't sound like Souji was interrupting anything. Now he just had to find something to do until lunch…

* * *

For the dozenth time that afternoon, Aika wobbled and nearly tripped. Well, she supposed it was afternoon, though the blinking multi colored lights in the halls and the humming of the ship's systems were a constant factor that made it hard to keep a natural sense of time. According to the clock it would be three in the afternoon back on earth, and she'd been careful to try and maintain her normal sleeping schedule.

By contrast Twoearle's sleep cycle was completely stilted. She would stay awake until she felt tired, wake up whenever she happened to, all the while leaving all the laundry and dishes to her roommate. Twoearle had also taken to wandering about clad only in her underwear, haphazardly dropping her clothes wherever she took them off and dumping unfinished meals in the sink like a total slob.  
_That woman has no discipline at all…_ Aika cursed to herself. _At least she's still showering. _It was easy to see now what Twoearle had been complaining about when she said space travel was miserable. The spaceship felt incredibly confining after a while. The simple fact that Aika no longer had the option to see real sunlight was more stressful than she'd thought it would be. In addition, the constant noise of the life support, hissing and lowly buzzing in the background was impossible to escape. It felt so very much like a fly hovering about her that she just couldn't swat.

The only thing that made the experience at all bearable was her routine. Having that to focus on whenever Twoearle was being unbearable kept Aika from strangling the mad scientist on more than one occasion. Karate had always been something she enjoyed, something she was familiar with. Even the necessary exercise that came with it, like pushups and sit ups, felt a lot like meditation to her.

Breathing out carefully, she once again held both arms up and raised one leg. The crane kick might have looked cool in the movies, but it wasn't the sort of move anyone would use in real life. The pose she was in reminded her of that, and she was sure she looked ridiculous, but she frowned in concentration and held the pose for as long as she could anyway.

There was definitely something wrong with her sense of balance. Aika wasn't entirely sure what it was, but somehow it felt like there was an unusual pull towards the ground on either side of her whenever she wavered even slightly. What was going on? Had she come down with a bug of some kind? Wasn't the ship supposed to be sterile?

If she got sick, she didn't know what she would do. Being confined to a bed with only Twoearle for a nurse really would be hell.

It must have been the lack of proper aerobic exercise. Without a treadmill or a swimming pool her routine had been a lot more limited then she would have liked.

A few hours later, with her kata's complete and sweat dripping from her, she was about to step out of the room when she hesitated. She was a little light headed, and her breathing was still heavy and faster than usual, but were her sweat drops falling too fast? It had to be her imagination, but then when she ran a hand through her hair and flicked some of the perspiration off her fingers, it definitely seemed to arc into the floor more sharply than it should. What was going on? Her empty drink bottle was in one hand, and she considered it before experimentally giving it a gentle underarm toss. It didn't go as far as she expected it to, clunking hollowly into the ground almost as soon as it left her hand… When she bent over to pick it up, she found one side of the plastic cracked.

_Something is definitely going on…_

When Aika stepped out of the room, she gave the bottle the same toss and it sailed down the ships corridor like she expected. After retrieving it, she stood back a distance before tossing it through the door into the training room, only to see its arc change almost mid flight and smack into the ground again.

_The gravity…_ Relief washed over Aika as she realised what was wrong. That's why her sense of balance was off, and why her routine had been leaving her more exhausted than it should. Some kind of glitch was making the gravity in the training room run too high. _It's lucky I didn't trip and hurt myself…_

"Hey, Twoearle!" She called out as she walked onto the bridge, only to find it empty. "Twoearle, where are you?"

"I was about to go to bed, what's the matter?" Twoearle walked onto the bridge wearing a scandalously thin nightgown, with a towel wrapped around her hair.

"Put on something decent for once!" Aika scowled, folding her arms. "What's wrong with you?"

"Aika, I'm about to go to bed." She groaned and rolled her eyes. "Is this actually important, or did you really just call me out here so I could listen to you whine?"

Breathing out slowly, Aika quietly weighed how tired she felt against how important this fight was, and found her exhaustion on the heavier side of the scales. "Whatever. I just wanted to tell you that something's wrong with the training room. The gravity in there seems weirdly high."

Instantly, Twoearle reacted. Her eyes widened fearfully and darted about the room, as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. "Oh, really? That's strange. I'll fix it right now."

"...Yeah." Aika agreed after a moment, eyes narrowing. "I assumed it was a glitch."

"That seems like the most reasonable explanation!" Twoearle's voice pitched upwards, as she woodenly walked over to the ship's console, and began to fiddle with the controls. "Oh, look you're right. It is a little high."

_Suspicious. _"...How high, exactly?" Aika walked up behind Twoearle and craned her neck, only for the woman to change the tab suddenly.

"Oh, only one point two times earth's gravity." She laughed woodenly. "Quite the workout I bet!"

"Yeah. It was." Different incidents were coming together in Aika's mind all at once. Like how she'd accidentally broke the handle of the kitchen knife earlier this morning, or the way the metal bar in Twoearle's chair had snapped so easily with a fairly normal punch. There was also that fight after Aika had stumbled onto Twoearle's creepy porn stache, and the way that the mad scientist had cowered on the floor over seemingly nothing… Experimentally, Aika reached out a hand and put it on her companion's shoulder.

Immediately, Twoearle gasped and stiffened up like she'd been stung. "H-hey. Are you just, uh, suddenly feeling lonely, or something?"

"Why would I be when I'm here with such a good friend to keep me company?" Aika replied, flatly.

"I-I didn't know you felt that way about me!" Twoearle swallowed. "But I feel a lot closer to you after our time together, here."

"Yeah, I agree. I've learned all sorts of things about you I didn't know before we set out." With a small push, Aika sent her tumbling to the deck where her face smacked harshly against the floor. "Like the fact you hide terrible things on your computer!" Stepping in front of the keyboard, Aika brought back up the tab that had been minimised.

"I need help." Twoearle moaned. "Please, I think you broke my shoulder."

"No I didn't, you big baby." Aika huffed, squinting at the readouts. "What is this? Bridge, one point zero EG… Hall one, one point zero EG. What does EG stand for? Earth's gravity?"

Rather than answer, Twoearle woozily rose to her feet. "Aika, you need to stop hitting me. I don't know if I'll survive much more of this."

"Let's see… Training room, training room… Is that recreation? Why does it say that recreation is set to five times earth's gravity?" Aika spun, to see the scientist limping out of the bridge. "Twoearle, what is this?!"

The scientist desperately hobbled out the door, and put a hand to the control panel on the other side, causing it to slam shut behind her. Or at least it would have, if Aika hadn't caught the closing portal with her hands.

"Why are you running?" Aika growled, pushing it open with a grunt of exertion.

Twoearle scampered backwards, staring wide eyed. "Holy shit, do you have any idea how much force that door exerts?"

"No? It felt fairly heavy, though." Aika shook her head and stepped closer to Twoearle. "Stop trying to distract me."

"L-look, I'll tell you everything if you promise not to hit me." She held up both hands wardingley, as she backed away slowly.

"You know, that sounds reasonable." Aika smiled stiffly and cracked her knuckles. "But here's my counter offer: I hit you, until you tell me everything."

Paling noticeably, Twoearle swallowed as she felt her rear bump into a wall. "So that at least implies if I tell you everything it won't be necessary to hit me, right?"

"_We'll see."_ Aika leaned forward, putting one hand on the wall next to Twoearle's head.

"Okay, okay… I swear I'll tell the truth!" Twoearle broke eye contact. "You know how in Dragon Sphere, Roku grows more powerful by continuously training under increased gravity?"

"...You've been increasing the gravity whenever I go to train, haven't you?" She breathed out in disbelief, thinking it over. "So… The reason I've been so tired after each training session is because you've been slowly increasing the strain I work out under?"

"Yes. Exactly." Twoearle nodded quickly. "And look how much stronger you've gotten as a result! There's no way a normal human would be able to force the door open like that."

"...So I'm currently five times as strong as when we set out?" Aika's brows came together. "That's impossible, human physiology doesn't work like that! Not to mention I'm a girl!" She looked at her arm which was currently pressed against the wall, and noticed that it was definitely more toned than it used to be, but lacked the bulk for the kind of strength Twoearle was talking about. "How is this possible?"

"Uh... " Twoearle shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea?"

"What? Then why were you raising the gravity if you didn't know it would make me stronger?!"

"...That doesn't really matter right now." She reached forward to place a hand on Aika's shoulder. "There are two things you need to keep in mind. One, is that even in your base form you have inhuman potential for growth. The other thing is that you don't know your own strength right now, and you might seriously kill me by accident. So you can't hit me."

Aika's eyes narrowed and she clenched and unclenched her fist. "How convenient for you."

"At the moment, I strongly disagree."

Staring at her hands, Aika backed away a step from Twoearle and surveyed her body. It really didn't look very different. All over there was greater evidence of toning in her glutes, thighs, forearms, and biceps, but not a lot of extra bulk. Rolling up her shirt revealed an impressive set of abs for a girl her age, but nothing that wouldn't be seen on any other athlete.

"Uh, do you need me for this?"

"Shut up, and watch." Aika took a step back and dropped to her knees, before leaning forward to perform a pushup there in the hall.

"Does it… feel easier?"

"I don't know yet." Lifting a hand up, Aika did a one armed pushup and felt barely any strain at all. After a moment's hesitation, she suddenly pushed down with a greater amount of force and instantly bounced back up to her feet. The sudden rise surprised her, and she had to put a foot back to halt her momentum. "Woah."

"I can only do half push ups, let alone one handed." Twoearle admitted. "And I definitely couldn't do that."

After a moment's consideration, Aika leaned forwards into a handstand. When her balance had stabilised, she raised one hand from the floor, while bending the other.

"See? You're a lot stronger now."

"It's not just that." After a few repetitions Aika shook her head in disbelief. "Even my sense of balance is better, this is insane."

"Yep, yep, you're welcome." Twoearle smiled prettily, clapping her hands together. "See? No harm done, and it's done you a world of good. So there's no need to-"  
Aika shot back to her feet, and her fist blurred out, stopping just short of Twoearle's face. The air displaced from the movement blew the towel off her head, and she shrieked, falling backwards into the wall behind her.

"This doesn't make any sense at all. Even my explosive strength has increased." Aika folded her arms. "Clearly this isn't a product of biology. Is it a side effect of the tailsuit? Even if it's not, this has to be caused by elemental attributes, right?"

From her seat on the ground, Twoearle answered. "That would be my best guess. Even normal humans can tap into their attribute strength to a certain degree, but the boost they get is nowhere near this."

"...What about Souji?" Aika looked down at Twoearle, consideringly. "His suit turned him into a girl for a while didn't it? Clearly our attributes can affect us outside of our transformations."

Standing up and holding her knees to stop them shaking, Twoearle spoke. "Well, to be fair, you were doing some fairly superhuman things before I even gave you your tailsuit?"

"Really? Like what?"

"Ah, that time you flexed your way out of several bear traps? That time you sent my man sized steel robot with a very low centre of gravity flying with a kick?"

Aika blinked slowly, looking at Twoearle in confusion. "That's just something any decent martial artist can do?"

"It's clearly not!" Twoearle ran her fingers through her wet hair in exasperation. "Who told you that?"

"Grandpa." Aika crossed her arms and glared. "Are you saying he lied to me?"

"Look, could Souji do something like that? Isn't he trained like you?"

"Well, he's rusty. I'm sure if he started coming back to the dojo regularly he could-"

"He definitely couldn't." Twoearle interrupted her by putting both hands on her shoulders. "Face it, you're a total freak."

Aika's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Oh? Care to rephrase that?"

"Uh, what I mean to say is that you are a unique, and precious individual, with many people who love you, and I'm sure that working together, we can overcome your condition."

"I don't like the way that sounds either." Aika huffed. "Besides, you're exaggerating. People do stuff like that all the time in movies."

"That's because they're in movies with wires and CGI!" Exasperation raised the pitch Twoearle was speaking at. "You can't honestly believe that you're normal, right?"

"Come on, Twoearle, you've stood up from my punches just fine." Aika rolled her eyes in disbelief. "And I know I haven't been holding back. If what you're saying is right, then you should be dead rather than bruised."

The mad scientist froze, her mouth hanging open like a fish. "...What? You mean you were seriously trying to hurt me?"

"Not _that_ seriously, or I would've just choked you out, but I was certainly hitting you as hard as I could."

"Even that time you kicked me as Tailblue?" Twoearle gaped in disbelief.

"...I hadn't even thought about that one." Aika admitted her eyebrows coming together in thought. "I just reacted."

"Do you have any idea how much force those tailsuits exert?! Pieces of my head should have been scattered over the next county!"

"...You're right, you should have died." A look of surprise came over Aika's face. "Wait, doesn't this mean that the tailsuit's had side effects on you as well?"

"You're an incredibly dangerous person!" Twoearle was hyperventilating. "If I was anyone else, you would have killed me a dozen times over!" She pointed her finger at Aika accusatorially. "I knew I should never have given you the tailsuit!"

Rather than reply, Aika reached out and grabbed the finger, bending it backwards painfully.

"Stop, stop! I give, I give!" Twoearle squealed, falling to her knees as tears sprung in her eyes.

"If you're resilience has been improved by the tailsuit like I suspect, then I shouldn't be able to break your finger right now." Aika grinned viciously. "This is an experiment."

"W-w-w-wait!" Sweat began pouring off Twoearle's head. "Not that hand! I need my right hand for my alone time, besides, I would never carry out a dangerous experiment on you like this!"

"Oh?" AIka scoffed. "Dangerous like turning the gravity up on me without warning?"

Twoearle's eyes began darting around the room. "P-please Twoearle, I'm too clumsy with my left to get off- ARGHHHH!"

"It clearly hurts." Aika noted aloud, then she released her. "But it's not broken."

Twoearle clutched her hand on the deck below, crying pitifully. "You're a monster!"

"Oh, hush, you're fine."

"Normal people don't do things like this to their friends!"

"But it really seems like you have an unnatural resilience. Didn't you make the tailsuits, or at least some of them? Are you sure you don't know anything?"

After taking a moment to compose herself, Twoearle answered. "They're a very new technology, even for Ultimaguil. I don't think anyone's studied the long term effects of their use before."

"I guess we better get started on that then."

"It will have to wait until we get back to earth." Twoearle slowly climbed back up to her feet. "We've only got the one suit here, and if something goes wrong while we're in space we could both die."

"True." Aika nodded. "Alright. Whatever. For now let's just keep gravity in the training room where it is, I'm the only one who uses it anyway."

A change came over Twoearle's expression, and she flexed her aching finger. She stared at it for a long moment, before a suspicious smile curled her lips. "...But are you really satisfied with that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… You've pushed yourself well beyond the limit of where any human has before? Maybe if you take this as far as it can go, you'd be strong enough to fight an Elemerian without transforming? Not to mention, if you want to have a normal life, you're going to have to learn to control your strength."

"That's… true, I guess." Aika considered the advice. "At the very least, it might be a useful backup in case I'm in public and can't transform…"

Exactly, exactly." Twoearle put a hand on Aika's shoulder and leaned down to look into her eyes. "I mean, is six hours a day really enough? Maybe you should be looking at nine or ten hours a day? You could even improve your stamina that way."

It was tempting. Aika really did love her karate… "It hasn't done me any harm so far…"

"Yep, yep." Twoearle agreed. "So why not go in there now? Get a few more hours in today even."

"You know, I think I will." A smile came over Aika's face, and she turned to walk the other way. "Let's see how far I can take this."

"Success." Twoearle hissed under her breath, clenching her fist.


	9. 09 Never Trust a Flower

School had sucked for more than a month, ever since Isabella's first day as Tailpink. It turns out that without any shared interests, all her friends were actually super lame. Overnight they had transformed into shy, easily embarrassed, and serious minded people. They still hung out with each other, but only ever to study or quietly talk about boys in maiden like reverence. Not a single one of them would say a word to Isabella if they could help it, too embarrassed by her appearance to risk association.

Whatever. Who needed them anyway? Even if Isabella's reputation at school continued to plummet, it wasn't really any of her concern. She had money, what did they have?

Being Tailpink, defender of planet Catyu, left her constantly tardy. Her attendance had gone from bad to unacceptable almost overnight. There was no way she'd be able to move up a year without her family's help.

Today she'd opted to play Armoured Galz on the rooftop during lunch, rather than in the classroom. Not because she cared about the losers whispering about her, or anything like that, she just wanted the solitude at the moment. Yeah. That was a good word for it.

_Solitude_.

It sounded a lot better in her mind than _loneliness_, anyway.

It was a nice afternoon, with the sun shining and birds in the sky too, so why shouldn't she enjoy it? There was absolutely no part of her that wondered if the reason her friends betrayed her had less to do with her twintails, and more to do with the fact that she had abandoned them.

"So stupid." She muttered to herself, not really sure who she was talking too or even what she was talking about, just wanting to express dissatisfaction of some kind.

Almost as if on cue, her phone rang. The caller ID said it was Orchidguildy, which was good because she was just getting in the mood to mash up some Elemerians anyway.

She slid her thumb across the screen to answer. "School roof."

"Excellent, I'll be righ-"

A few seconds later, a shimmer in the air in front of the building split apart to reveal the loading ramp of Orchidguildy's spaceship. Isabella walked up the ramp, transforming into Tailpink as she did. The inside was dark, with multiple rows of multicolored blinking lights. It's roof was fairly high up, though there was only enough seating for three Elemerians.

Orchidguildy sat in the pilot's chair, while the copilot's seat next to him stayed empty. He was in his Elemerian form, his insectile appearance allowing him to more comfortably fit in a space designed for it.

"Princess, this time the attack is inside Nyapon!" He called to her. "Which certainly means it's some of your fans."

"Whatever." Isabella dismissed, but personally rather liked the thought of swooping in to save them. It'd be nice to get some appreciation for once.

The ship moved incredibly fast. It took them less than ten minutes to get from one hemisphere to the other, so just moving from her school to another region of Nyapon was barely a minute long journey. Somewhere in the back of her head, she wondered about traveling faster than the speed of light or sound, but she thought asking about it would look lame, so she kept her mouth shut.

"We're here, Princess." Orchidguildy called out to her, and the ramp lowered to reveal a grassy field.

Hefting her rosy warhammer over one shoulder, Tailpink strolled down the ramp confidently, shielding her eyes against the sun as she did, and when her vision cleared she saw… nothing. In front of her were the vast, rolling plains of Nyapon's northern grasslands. Off in the distance she could make out the silhouette of a snow capped mountain range, but when she looked around there was no trace of human civilisation in any direction. A single thin stream of water surrounded by reeds was the field's only distinguishing feature.

"You landed in the wrong place, idiot." She turned to call back up the ramp.

"No, I did not, Princess." Orchidguildy answered back, voice firmer and deeper than his usual, slightly nasal register. "The attack is right here."

"..." A familiar needle of betrayal stabbed into Isabella's chest, though she told herself she was overthinking things. There was a nervous feeling growing in her gut as she turned to face her only remaining ally. "Then who's being attacked?"

The giant elemerian strode down the ramp, coming to a halt just a few metres away from her. "Do you know what I love most in all the worlds?"

"...Twintails?" Isabella immediately knew the answer, the sinking feeling in her gut growing.  
"Exactly." He chuckled fondly. "Do you know what I love second most?"

It took her a moment to figure it out, but as she cast her mind back Isabella could only find the one thing that particularly interested him. It was staring her right in the face the entire time, though it wasn't until this moment that it seemed especially conspicuous. "You always called me 'Princess.'"

"That's right." He breathed out in contentment, looking down upon her fondly. "You were always smarter than you acted."

"So now you're going to steal my attributes?" Even as water welled in her eyes, she summoned up a powerful sneer. "Pathetic. What a creepy loser, pretending to get close to me so you could-"  
"Oh, no I wasn't pretending at all." He held out his hands to reassure her. "I love you from the bottom of my heart, with every fibre of my being. This month in your presence has been true ecstasy, and the fact that it's coming to an end makes me quite sad. We truly were close. I know you better than anyone else in the world, though perhaps you were never quite as familiar with me."

Isabella scoffed. "Whatever. Like I care, _bugman_. I'll just squish you like all your other gross friends."

"They weren't my friends." He corrected, reaching up to undo his cravat. "They were subordinates. You see, my real name isn't actually Orchidguildy." He tossed the bundle of cloth away, and stood to his full height, his arms spread. "Now bear witness to my true form! Orchid_mantis_guildy, commander of this Ultimaguil invasion!"

He looked the exact same except now he didn't have layers of pink draped around his neck. "_That_ was your disguise?" Tailpink said in an incredulous tone.

"Yes, perfect wasn't it?! Who could expect a humble flower would hide such a deadly hunter?!"

"Why even give me the suit if all you wanted was to steal attributes?!" Isabella snapped. "Why pretend to be my friend?!"

"Someone needed to wear the suit, to inspire people all across this world to take up twintails of their own. It's a strategy we've carried out with great success on many worlds before this one. The size of our harvests has increased a dozenfold as a direct result!" He lowered his arms, and said in a softer tone. "And I chose you, because I love princesses."

Tailpink grit her teeth so hard her jaw hurt. Before she even realised it, her arm had snapped forward and she cried. "Heavenly BACKHAND!" The glowing hammer flew from her fingers, and towards Orchidmantisguildy.

At the last possible second, he stepped suddenly to the side, and the hammer smashed through his ship. There was an explosion, and pieces of alien material turned to shrapnel. Tailpink covered her face with her arms as she was sent flying to land painfully in the soil, skidding to a halt after several metres and leaving a groove in the soft earth.

After a moment, she stood back up, shaking the grit from her hair. "Great. Now I gotta walk home."

"Don't worry." Orchidmantisguildy's voice rang out, and he strode out of the smoke of the explosion. "I can drop you off."

"You won't when you're dead meat!" Isabella snarled, charging forward as a new warhammer appeared in her hands. With a massive overhead strike, she brought it down towards him, but he nimbly ducked aside, and countered the obvious attack with two sharp blows to her face and gut.

"You never learned how to fight, Princess." He lectured her.

"I've crushed plenty of you Elemerians!" She swung the warhammer in a wide arc around her, which he simply stepped inside of. With one hand he blocked the haft harmlessly, and with the other he smashed a fist into her belly.

Tailpink was sent flying again, and before she'd even landed Orchidmantisguildy had appeared over her to kick her down into the earth. Another large dust cloud formed, and Tailpink found herself in the middle of the crater, coughing up dirt and sorely winded.

"All you ever did was use your finishing move on my weakest, most overconfident soldiers. Fools unworthy of Ultimaguil, who only served me so they could be defeated by you. Against a true officer of our organisation, a delicate Princess like you stands no chance."

"I'm not even a princess!" Tailpink shouted. "You creepy degenerate!"

"Yes, you are."

"What, are you going to try and tell me I'm royalty? I know who my mom and dad are."

"Oh no, you're definitely not royalty." He shook his head. "But you're definitely a princess."

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Tailpink charged again, this time without her weapon. She threw her fist at him, only for him to nimbly slap the blow aside and then smash her face with his other hand. This time she managed to keep her footing, but he didn't let up. Tailpink barely had time to raise her arms up to block the lightning fast set of strikes aimed at her head and upper body, before he suddenly changed his attack so a fist slipped below her elbows.

Spittle flew from her mouth as she was again struck in the lower abdomen, but this time rather than be flung, he caught her arm and swung her around so she crashed into the earth.

"This really doesn't bring me any joy." Orchidmantisguildy sighed. "More than anything else, I would love to be your knight in shining armour."

She spat at him. "Go fuc-"

Still holding her arm, he slammed her into the ground again. "Uh-uh, none of that, Princess."

"-Gonna kill you!" She coughed, spluttered, snarled, though fear was beginning to take hold. Acting confident came naturally to her, but so did this painful sense of helplessness.

"No, you're not." Orchidmantisguildy explained, his tone gentle. "Princess, seeing as how there was a chance you might actually defeat me, slim as it is, I made some very careful preparations. This day ends with all the attributes of this world harvested, starting with you."

Struggling, Tailpink tried to break his grip on her wrist, but couldn't budge it. If she knew some grapple focused martial art of some kind, maybe she could figure something out, but as it was she couldn't even get in range to swing a fist at him. When she tried to kick him, her foot barely scraped his shin. He held her out too far from his body with those long arms.

"Let go of me, creep!"

"Princess, this is undignified."

"Stop calling me that!" Looking around for something she could use, she saw over his shoulder one of her warhammers laying flat against the earth. If she could just keep Orchidmantisguildy distracted… "Why do you think I'm a princess?"

"I'm glad you asked." Of course he did, all Elemerians loved talking about their fetishes. "Do you know, for the longest time I asked myself, 'What even is a princess?' Is it really someone who's set to inherit a royal title? But what about a warrior princess whose kingdom has been destroyed? Or what if she's the last one in line, with nothing to inherit? Or how about _daddy's little princess? _Is she still a princess?"

"Oh, just get to the point." Tailpink slumped in his grip. "Literally no one other than you could care about this.

"Very well." He stood up to his full height, puffing out his chest. "The truest essence of a princess, is that they are alone!"

Instantly, indignation flashed through Tailpink's and from her tongue. "I wasn't alone until you guys ruined my friends!"

"Oh, you know those cronies weren't really your friends, or even your peers. They just enjoyed the money you spent on them."

"Shut up!" She struggled in his grip again.

"You are the truest definition of a princess. A girl with such crippling daddy issues, that she spends millions of yen worth of his money, desperately trying to get his attention for a few brief minutes, just so you can spit in his eye and drive him away once again."

Her vision blurred, and she swallowed down a protest she knew would sound pathetic even to her ears.

"You live alone in a castle surrounded by servants and sycophants, and not once for even a moment, did any of them really try to understand you, or be your friend." His tone softened. "Until me. With our technology we're easily able to detect and observe anyone with a strong Twintail attribute, and from among them I chose you. Because I saw you for what you truly were, when no one else did."

"A princess." her voice sounded weak even to her own ears. Looking up, she tried reaching out to the hammer with her mind, willing it to draw near her. Instead, it dissolved into pink sparkles. She froze at the sudden loss of her weapon, only for another thought to flash through her mind. _Does that mean I can summon it again, now?_ "Ok, great. You've beaten me up, and monologued a bunch. I feel really loved. Now what?"

"Now I take all your pain away."

"Ugh, what the heck, you're so creepy!" She scrunched up her face with equal parts disgust and concentration. The hammer reappeared in her hand, and rather than catch it, she let the weapon drop to where she awkwardly caught head with her foot. With a kick, she managed to fling it at his thigh, where it dropped down onto his toe.

"Agh!" He cried, hopping back in pain.

Tailpink used the chance to wrench free of his grip and snatch up the haft of her hammer. Seeing this, Orchidmantisguildy barely had time to raise his arms to block her attack, the heavy head crashing directly into his forearm. Immediately he was sent spinning to the earth, leaving his own groove in the dirt.

Rather than let up, Tailpink jumped up, spinning as she did, eyes ablaze with righteous fury at his betrayal. "Heavenly BACKHAND!" She screamed with rage, the glowing pink weapon flying from her grip and crashing directly into her foe.

"Urk!" He cried, being smashed deeper into the earth and forming a new crater. Dust filled the air, but Isabella knew that if he didn't explode he was still alive. Until that happened, she wouldn't relent. Diving into the cloud where she remembered him being, Tailpink found him on his knees clutching a glowing wound.

"Die!" She snarled, kicking at his head with all her strength.

One again, he just barely managed to block her attack and was sent flying out of the cloud.

"Now!" He cried out, mid air. "Do it now!"

"Get back here, bugman!" Tailpink yelled leaping into the air after him. "I'm totally not done with you!"

She escaped the cloud, eyes watering from the dust and found the previously empty plain filled with aliens. An enormous swarm of black Ultiroids surrounded Orchidmantisguildy, and Tailpink wind milled her arms to halt her momentum before she plowed into them. The sudden change in momentum caused her to fall backwards onto her bottom.

"What is this?" She quickly scrambled to her feet.

"Well done." Their leader chuckled, winded but yet unexploded. "I really didn't think you'd have it in you to push me this hard. But now, see how futile your efforts are! You may have been able to resist me, but what about my ONE THOUSAND ULTIROIDS?!"

_Oh, no…_ Tailpink groaned in her mind, though she was careful not to say anything. She could feel it inside her, her energy running low and the pain from the beating endured earlier. Ultiroids were pathetic, but a thousand of them?

"Now my minions, for the princess! CHAAAARGE!" Orchidmantisguildy shouted out, directing his army with a flourish.

Without even a second to catch her breath, Tailpink was attacked from all sides. Desperately, she lashed out with fist and foot, even headbutting where she had to, but the enemy was fearless and surrounded her completely. From her blind spots, time and time again, a small blow would get through and she'd found herself growing more and more bruised. Every attack she made would destroy her foe if it landed, but they were getting slower and more wild over time. It got to the point were most of her attacks weren't even landing, and the Ultiroids would simply dance back away from her front, while others leapt at her from behind.

_How many more are there?_ She couldn't count them from the middle of the hoarde. _How many have I even beaten?_ She realised it probably wasn't even fifty. Over the head of the crowd, in the distance she could see Orchidmantisguildy, who made eye contact with her. _He's catching his breath for round two…_

There was no way she could win this. Maybe if she still had her hammer, and maybe if she was fresh to battle she could face down a thousand ultiroids, but there was no way for her to defeat this many and Orchidmantisguildy at the same time. Especially when he was a more skilled and more experienced fighter than she was…

Without a word of warning, she spun on her heal and ran, leaping up over the crowd of aliens and landing on the other side of it. _I have to get out of here, I can't win!_ Legs pumping and head bent low, she sprinted, almost stumbling and tripping with exhaustion, but just barely keeping her feet.

The earth rumbled as the alien army chased, the air filled with thousands of indignant cries of, "Mugi! Mugi!"

"Not here!" She choked out to herself. "Not like this!" Tears once again blurred her vision and she felt a growing stitch developing in her side. "This sucks! This is lame! I'm not gonna become one of those pathetic, dull losers! I won't!" Even to herself, she sounded weak and desperate.

Ahead of her was nothing, nowhere to hide, no one to help, and after a moment, something far worse appeared too. A familiar looking Elemerian dropship flew overhead, out pacing her easily and banking around to land in front of her. Orchidmantisguildy walked down its loading ramp, a large scythe in his hand.

She slowed to a halt, chest heaving as she sucked in air and bent forwards to lean on her thighs. Behind her, the army of Ultiroids soon caught up and surrounded her, leaving a clear path for their leader to approach.

"I told you, I prepared for this very carefully princess!" He called out to her. "Of course I'd have a way home if you destroyed our ship."

"Yeah, well." She swallowed, rising back to her full height and summoning her warhammer again. "Shut up."

"Losing your attributes really won't be so bad, you won't even know you ever had them." He explained in a reassuring tone. "Not to mention, it really might help with your relationships to be less of a bi-"

"Argggh, just, like, shut up, and fight me!" She snapped, rubbing at her eyes.

"I don't think we will fight at all, actually." He replied, walking towards her slowly.

"Well I'm not gonna just give up!" Tailpink shouted back, though her knees were trembling from exhaustion and she couldn't seem to get the damn dust out of her eyes.

"Oh, well I meant to say you're actually running out of time." He shook his head, sadly. "All that defiance will do you no good when your tailsuit is all out of energy."

"...They can do that?" Tailpink asked, voice small.

"None of your previous battles have lasted long enough for that to be a risk, but yes."

Rather than waste anymore of a finite resource, Tailpink rushed at her foe, brandishing her weapon over head. She didn't even get to swing it at him once before it vanished from her hands in a shower of pink coloured particles, and she collapsed to the ground in front of him, vision swimming.

"There it is." Orchidmantisguildy laughed. "Ultiroids! Seize her!"

"No…" Tailpink wheezed out, unable to raise her limbs us the aliens closed in on her and grabbed her arms. "No-no-no…" She tried to struggle, but her movements were feeble, weak. From within the dropship, a pair of Ultiroids pulled out a familiar looking, large metallic ring. "You can't do this to me!"

"Don't worry, it really will be painless."

"Shut up!" Her struggle renewed, but she was barely able to stay conscious at it was. "These are mine! They're my mothers! You can't have them! These are _my _twintails!"

The ring came closer, seeming to loom larger in her vision as it did.

"No! No please! You can't-" Unceremoniously, the Ultiroids threw her through the ring, and immediately she collapsed like a puppet with the strings cut. Thoughts of her mother, thoughts of her father and her painful struggle with him, all of them disappeared in an instant, and left behind nothing but the fuzzy darkness of unconsciousness.


	10. 10 Your Princess is In Another Castle

"We're here!" Twoearle's voice echoed from the bridge.

Aika poked her head out of the kitchen. She was just in the middle of preparing dinner for herself, but given Twoearle's schedule Aika guessed it would count as breakfast for her fellow passenger. "Hm?"

"We've arrived. We're coming back into real space now." The mad scientist answered, focusing on the screen in front of her. The familiar old screen saver of ominous clouds and monsters disappeared to be replaced with a view of a growing, white and blue speckled ball in the middle of a field of stars. "See? There it is."

Relief washed over Aika. Their journey was finally coming to an end! No more doing Twoearle's laundry, or dishes, and there wouldn't even be any more of those awkward moments when she stepped onto the bridge to know in an instant Twoearle had accessed her gross collection again. _Sunlight! I'll be able to see real sunlight!_

"It looks just like earth." Aika's voice made it clear that wasn't a bad thing.

"Only from a distance."

They watched it growing closer in silence for a moment, before Aika started to shift back towards practical questions. "So… Are we going to try and make contact with the government or anything? Do they have a government, or are they stone aged or something?"

"The Ultimaguil scouting report says that technoglogically, and societally, they're about on par with your world. So I say no, we don't contact them. I don't want to get dissected in this world's version of area fifty one, you know?"

That sounded like a fair point to Aika. "I guess that means we're just going to go straight to the local tailsuit warrior, then."

"Assuming they have one yet, we might have got here before the Elemerians." She fiddled with some controls, and brought up a different screen. It looked like a map of the world, with blue oceans and green landmasses, but there was a big collection of red dots on a familiar looking archipelago. "Oh, nope. They're definitely here before us. They've even got a few ships down there right now… Looks like their mothership is hanging out near some gas giant in the outer system."

"What are they doing down there?" Aika asked, feeling curious.

"Not sure." Twoearle minimised one screen and brought up another. "Going by the amount of Twintail attribute in the area, they're probably down their harvesting."

"Then where's the Tailsuit Warrior? Shouldn't they be there to stop it?"

"Yeah, it's weird." Twoearle scratched the back of her head. "According to these readings, they've got about a thousand ultiroids down there, an officer class Elemerian, and it looks like just one person with a _lot_ of Twintail attribute."

"Huh. That sounds a lot like that time they tried to ambush me and Souji…"

"Yeah, it does…"

Coming to the same relation together, Twoearle and Aika looked at eachother and shouted. "That's the Tailsuit Warrior!"

"Get me there now!" Aika shouted, dashing back to the kitchen to throw the unfinished meal into the sink, before running back to the bridge and slamming the door shut behind her. "Geeze, we're almost too late."

"We are too late!" Twoearle shouted over the ships coms. "All that Twintail attribute just disappeared! Which means they just harvested her!"

"NO!" Aika bellowed. "Argh! Don't we tell me came all this way for nothing?!"

"No, it should still be okay." Twoearle leaned forward over the controls, beads of sweat pouring from her forehead. "If you can destroy the ring they used for the harvest we can still save her!"

"Damn it, damn it!" Aika ran her fingers through her hair. "Diving into the middle of that is going to be really dangerous."

"They're on the move! They just loaded her and all the twintail attribute into a ship, and they're taking off!" Twoearle pushed forwards on the control and the whole ship lurched, almost throwing Aika off balance. "I'm taking us straight in, get to the cargo ramp! I'll open it when we're over their ship, and you jump out!"

"Fine!" Aika agreed, turning and rushing through the halls of the ship. She flew down the stairs to the cargo bay two at a time, which was all the more impressive because they were Elemerian stairs. "Just jump out of flying spaceship, how can that go wrong?"

The cargo bay was mostly just full of food they didn't need to refrigerate, most of which was used over the course of their journey, though there was still a few crates full of cans and a bag of rice. They were secured to the floor with traps, so they shouldn't turn to flying debris when the door opened, but Aika still felt nervous as she transformed into Tailblue.

"Oh boy, I'm really doing this." On her wrist she activated her trusty old ribbon elemera, though she doubted the flight it granted would keep pace with a spaceship. At least it could substitute as a parachute if she missed.

"Now!" A voice called over the intercom. "We should be above them!"

Tailblue hit the button for the ramp, causing the whole back half of the room to lower and all the air to whoosh out sharply. Her two long tails of hair whipped about and she leaned back to resist the change in pressure with one hand protecting her eyes. Through the curtain of her blue locks, she saw an ominous black shape, like a brick with wings and streaks of lightning dancing across it.

Wait she saw two of them. Behind the first ship was another one that was much smaller.

"Twoearle, which one is it?!"

There was no answer. Obviously the pilot couldn't hear her from the cockpit.

"Damn it!" Tailblue snarled, yelling to reach her over the communicator in her wrist. "Twoearle?! Can you hear me?"

Over the rushing of the wind she barely heard a reply. "It's- -igger one! - big o-!"

"Bigger one, got it!" Tailblue charged down the ramp and leapt, her stomach plummeting at the sudden sensation of weightlessness. The gooseflesh rose on the back of her neck at the sight of just how far above the water she was. Many miles below her, azure oceans rolled in the wind. She dimly wondered how far below the surface she'd go if she landed there at terminal velocity. Would the Tailsuit be enough to help her survive? Did they have sea monsters on this planet?  
All these thoughts and sensations lasted a fragment of a second, as she instantly rocketed towards the alien spaceship and whipped out her spear. She would have shot past it entirely if she didn't lash out to bury her weapon in the ship's hull. Strange alien energy washed over her, painful bolts of violent lightening lancing into her, dragging a grunt of pain from between gritted teeth.

It wasn't enough to stop her though. Her grip on her weapon tightened, and she grabbed hold of some of the rent metal. With a firm hand hold, she let her spear disappear, and began the painful process of climbing across the outer hull to the front of the vessel. More strikes of electricity washed over her, but she just scrunched up face and pulled through until she found herself at the cockpit, smoking and a little numb, but alive and functional.

Black, mirrored, one way glass obscured her vision, and she pounded her fist into it. Spider webs of fractures radiated out from where she hit, so she drew her arm back and struck again. Once, twice, three times and then with a loud crash it gave away before her and she found tumbled onto the bridge of the ship, where a number Ultiroids and a few Elemerians stared at her dumbly.

Resummoning her spear, Tailblue stood to her full height and pointed its tip at one of the aliens. "Alright! Who are you, and what's your obsession?"

"I am Aphiguildy, a lover of girls in skintight suits, and I must say I am quite impressed by you!"

"Great." She dashed forward and rammed the tip of her spear straight through his torso.

The Ultiroids squealed, and she cut them down indiscriminately along with any other Elemerian who stood in her way. With every alien on the bridge defeated, she advanced down the hall behind it. An alarm was blaring overhead, and in front of her was row after row of doors, with only strange, untranslated alien writing to distinguish them.

"Twoearle, I'm onboard."

"Oh, thank goodness." Twoearle breathed out in relief. "There should be about three floors, and they should be keeping the rings on the third one. Find an elevator or some stairs."

"Got it." Tailblue rushed through the hall, throwing open each door and cutting down anyone she found until she came across a massive, familiar set of stairs. "One. Two. Three…" She counted as she rushed past the landings. She threw open a door at the bottom to find a massive armoured Elemerian with a great number of wriggling arms looming over her.

"You! You dare assault a vessel of Ultimaguil! I, Pillbugguildy shall-"

"Get out of the way!" Tailblue growled, roundhouse kicking him to the side, and jabbing him with her weapon when he was down.

"Such savagery!" He cried as he exploded.

Other warriors rushed forward to challenge her, but none lasted very long. Eventually she found a room full of cowering Ultiroids, and a collection of six metallic rings stacked on top of each other in storage.

"You!" She singled out one of the creatures. "Have these ones been used recently?"

It shook its head, pleadingly.  
"Take me to the one that was just used."

She had to make an example of some of the other Ultiroids in the room before it agreed. With it scampering just ahead of her she was led through another corridor and down the left side of a T intersection, where it brought her to a closed door.

"Open it." She ordered it, only for it to push the button and a red light flashed up. "It's locked?"

It nodded.

"Whatever." Tailblue stepped forward and kicked the door with all her might, ripping it out of its frame and sending it crashing into the ground in front of her. When she looked around, she found floating right in the centre of the room an attribute harvester, and behind it, unconscious in a bed was a girl with cat ears, long hair that stretched to her waist, and a pink metallic band on one wrist.

* * *

For the first time in a long time, everything was quiet in Isabella's mind. It helped that she was unconscious, but even her dreams were typically a source of anxiety. Not this one. It was simple. Peaceful. Boring even.

Isabella sat on a swing, and talked to a friend. Who the friend was, and what they talked about was irrelevant, they just enjoyed each other's company unconditionally. That was it. It felt like hours passed without anything to show for it, but somehow Isabella was more content with this than she ever had been.

Just one friend would be nice, wouldn't it? It wouldn't matter who it was. Just one person who enjoyed her company, and not her money. That didn't seem like a lot to ask for. A friend who didn't want to just use her twintails.

Wait, what? That was a strange thought to have. Since when she did she wear twintails? Since forever?

"Hey, wake up."

Who was that? Why were they talking to her?

"We need to get out of here." Something, make that someone, was shaking Isabella.

"I'm okay." She answered, and discovered that she wasn't. Her arms hurt from what felt like muscle pain, as did her legs and chest. Just opening her eyes felt like a struggle. "I'm okay?"

"I don't know about that." The voice answered, and Isabella realised it was a girl's. "_Are_ you okay?"

She was so disoriented, that it took Isabella a moment to realise she was looking up at the ceiling, and lying flat on her back. "I'm too tired to move." She answered honestly in a small voice, after trying to sit up and feeling the muscles in her abdomen protest painfully. Her eyes rolled to the right and took in the sight of the girl interrogating her. "...What the hell are you wearing?"

The stranger was dressed in a blue and white swimwear, with armour around her forearms and lower legs. The outfit left her thighs and belly exposed, along with her shoulders and had a breast window built into it to show off nothing at all, because the girl was flat as a board. Someone who was anything less than a c-cup shouldn't be wearing something like that. Her long blue twintails stretched down past her thighs, curling upwards at the knee. Blue eyes that matched her hair shone with concern.

"It's a Twinsuit, like yours." The girl reached out and gently raised Isabella's wrist so that her pink band was in view. "Just like this one."

"Oh." Isabella blinked slowly. "Didn't Orchidmantisguildy steal my attributes?"  
"I destroyed the harvester, so your attributes are back now." She answered. "Can you stand?"

Isabella tried to sit up, only for the strain in her stomach to be enough to make the act as painful as it was futile. "No?"

"Alright, I'll have to carry you."

"What do youuuuuuggh?!" Isabella gave a small shriek as she was effortlessly lifted up in a princess carry. Wait, princess carry? _Suspicious_. "Who are you? Where's Orchidmantisguildy?"

"Um, okay quick version." The girl replied, carrying her through a doorway and into a long metallic corridor. "My name is Tailblue, and I'm a Tailsuit Warrior like you from another world. I'm basically an alien, and I'm here to save you."

"..." Isabella didn't even know what to say to that. "Where are we?"

"Uh, an Elemerian ship of some kind." Tailblue answered quickly, poking her head through a door and looking left and right. "I don't even know where to go. One sec." She shifted her grip on Isabella, so she could bring her wrist closer to her mouth. "Twoearle, I've found the other warrior, and I've recovered her attributes. Now I'm lost."

"Uh, okay." A woman's voice answered, though Isabella couldn't see the speaker in Tailblue's wrist armour. "I don't have a map, I'm sorry."

"Then how am I supposed to get out of here?" Tailblue answered, frustrated.

"It's just like a maze, put your hand against one wall and eventually you'll find an airlock."

"Oh, great! Such useful directions!" Tailblue snapped back sarcastically, before lowering her arm. "Sorry about that, my guide has some issues."

"Wait, an airlock?" Isabella questioned. "Are we flying?"

"Yeah, though we should still be in atmosphere." She replied, looking around and biting her lip. "Whatever, we're going this way then."

Isabella gave another squeal of surprise, as Tailblue dashed down one corridor in a random direction. She accelerated so quickly Isabella felt her stomach do a flip flop, and it didn't help that she felt fully weightless in the other girls arms.

"W-wait a second."

"Sorry, but I can't-"

"You!" A loud voice called from up ahead, a large grasshopper like Elemerian stepping into the corridor in front of them. "I found you!"

Without breaking stride, Tailblue jumped up and lashed out with her foot. Isabella's world spun as her vision blurred, and the Elemerian gave a cry of pain.

"Sorry!" Tailblue apologised as she landed. "I can't really put you down or swing my spear."

Isabella's head was still spinning as the two of them ran down another corridor, and her face turned green. "I'm gonna be sick."

A handful of Ultiroids appeared, and Tailblue dispatched them in a similar way, each time the incredible speed of her blows rocking Isabella's head back and forth.

"Oh, I'm gonna get whiplash."

"Ah, an airlock!" Tailblue shouted. "I'm just gonna have to change my grip for a sec."

Isabella's stomach lurched suddenly as she found herself effortlessly tossed over this stranger's shoulder. There was a loud bang, and her world spun as Tailblue shoved her hand into the space between the door and the frame, and wrenched it open. There was a small room between the inner and outer door that Tailblue stepped through and Isabella found herself looking back the way they came while the next door was ripped open.

Instantly, the atmospheric pressure changed, and Isabella's hair whipped about. "Wait, are you going to juuu_uuuuump_?!" Her yell morphed into another scream, as she and her saviour plummeted from the ship towards the world below. The air was so thin Isabella felt herself getting light headed, and as her lungs emptied from the first scream, she gasped for more air desperately.

"It's okay, we're flying." Tailblue called out to reassure her.

Despite her aching limbs, Isabella somehow found the strength to cling to her tightly as she was transferred back to the princess style carry. "Don't drop me! Please don't drop me!"

"It's okay, I've got you." Tailblue answered and glanced over her shoulder. Isabella followed her gaze and saw the black shapes of the Elemerian vessels banking around mid air, and coming down towards them. "Twoearle, we're out of the ship, but it looks like they're coming around to chase us."

"Alright! Uh, I'm not a good enough pilot to pick you guys up mid flight, so uh, just put down on that island there and I'll land."

"What island?" Tailblue looked around.

"Uh, it's there, just, you know, tiny."

"I don't see it!"

Isabella look back towards the ocean, and peered around. It took a moment for her to spot the tiny little stretch of sand, almost directly beneath them. "Right there." She pointed with one hand, before immediately throwing it back around Tailblue's neck.

"Oh, you're right!"

Again, Isabella felt that disturbing sense of weightlessness and she bit back a scream, as Tailblue leaned forward and accelerated straight down. Isabella scrunched her eyes shut, until all of a sudden, her ride pulled up and she found herself slowing down to come to a much more gentle speed as they passed over the waves.

Tailblue slowed them to a gentle hover, before gently settling them down on the sandy beach. "Okay. That went well."

"Put me down!" Isabella yelled, struggling feebly in her saviours arms. "Put me down, or so help me-"

"Okay, okay." Tailblue sounded apologetic, and moved up the beach to the treeline where she laid her passenger in the shade. "Sorry, that was a rough trip. Are you hurt?"

Rather than answer, Isabella squinted against the sunlight that filtered down through the shade to get another look at her 'saviour'. Her assessment remained unchanged from last time, though this time in the light of day it was easier to make out the toning in this self described alien's arms, thighs and abs. She also couldn't help but notice that the other girl lacked a tail and ears. How did she keep her balance without a tail?

"I think I'm okay." Isabella answered after a moment, though she sounded unsure even to herself. "Are you really an alien? Why are you-"

"Wait, sorry." Tailblue raised her hand to forestall her questions. "More Elemerians are about to come, and I'm gonna have to leave you here so I can fight them. I promise we'll talk later."

"B-be careful." Isabella warned her, and only justified why she did to herself afterwards. It only made sense to help whoever was against the bad guys anyway, right? Maybe that was the blood that was still pounding in her ears talking anyway. "They swarmed me with a thousand Ultiroids, and there's a really strong one called Orchidmantisguildy."

"Sounds familiar." Tailblue breathed out, and stood up to face the invasion force. "They pulled the same move on my world."

Isabella gasped. "And you beat them?"

"Yeah." Tailblue answered quickly. "Well, me and another named Tailred, who you'll get to meet later if you want."

"If it took two of you to defeat that many last time, how are you gonna win this time?" Isabella pressed.

"Hm? Guess I'll just work really hard." Tailblue stuck a thumb up and gave a confident smirk. "Wait here, I'll be right back."

Isabella swallowed, her heart skipping a beat despite herself. "...Okay."


	11. 11 Day Saved

"You know you were talking complete garbage, right?" Twoearle's voice came over the suit's com the moment Tailblue was out of earshot of the other warrior. "There's no way you can take them on, let alone the other Elemerians that will be coming."

"Just get here." Tailblue replied through grit teeth, keeping her voice low so it wouldn't carry. "How long do you need?"

"I can land there in less than a minute, but just because I can land doesn't mean I'll be able to take off again if they board the ship." Twoearle answered. "What's your plan?"

"I'll just ask him about his fetish, and while he's distracted with that you land quietly."

"...You know, that might actually work."

"Right?"

The massive block like shape of the first Elemerian dropship pulled over head, and its ramp opened to pour out hundreds of ultiroids who lined up in perfect order just down the beach. A few moments later a giant praying mantis man wielding a scythe dropped down from the same ramp to stand in front of them.

"You! I recognize you!" He pointed a finger in an accusatory manner. "You're the new Tailblue!"

"Oh?" Tailblue put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at him. "Famous am I?"

"Indeed." The alien's hand clenched on his scythe, the dramatic sound audible even over the waves. "Your cruelty and barbarity have become known all across the local universes. I myself have seen the footage where you opt to beat your foes to death with your bare hands, rather than use a civilized weapon."

"Hey that's-" Tailblue closed her mouth. Well, technically it was true, though it didn't quite capture the emotions of the moment. "Look, you Elemerians are bunch of gross deviants anyway, so whatever comes you can't really complain about."

"We are a noble race of conquerors, and I will not let a mere cellular lifeform like you speak ill of us!"

"Riiight. Quick question then, what's your favourite thing in the world other than Twintails?"

"Princesses!" He answered immediately.

"There we go."

"The most beautiful creature in all the worlds is a true princess!" He pounded a fist to his chest.

"Really? I've never even heard that word before." She glanced over her shoulder to where Twoearle's ship was coming in for a landing. "What is a '_Pu rin ce su'_ anyway?"

"How can you not know?!" Orchidmantisguildy exploded, slamming the pole of his scythe against the ground with outrage. "To not love them as much as I do is at least understandable, but for a society to not even have the concept is an abomination! Why, it's so ridiculous that-" He shut his mouth suddenly. "Oh, I get it. Your playing for time."

"...You know I bet that would usually work." Tailblue summoned her spear, and lowered herself into a combat ready stance.

"I'm confused though." Orchidmantisguildy scratched his chin. "Why did you think time was on your side?"

"Because, I'm not here alone." She smirked, mind racing. "You've heard of me, so I bet you've heard of Tailred? Well, she's coming in on that ship just behind me. So you've got about thirty seconds until the two of us turn you and your friends into your base attributes."

"Hm." Orchidmantisguildy pointed his staff at her. "I guess that means we better take you out while we still have the chance."

_Ah, damn it._ Tailblue clicked her tongue.

"Ultiroids, crush her!"

As the horde of pathetic black aliens bore down on her, her first instinct was conserving her powers to deal with the officer, but she realised she didn't have that luxury. If she took too long to deal with them, Orchidmantisguildy would just rush past her and abduct Tailpink all over again. Tailblue was left with no choice but to bring out the big guns immediately, and deal with the consequences later.

"Aura pillar!" She yelled, and from her wrist fired a beam of blue energy into the sky where it arched back down to crash into the sand. Orchidmantisguildy saw the attack, and leapt out of its path, but the Ultiroids were too slow. The entire army was trapped in place, as Tailblue summoned a spear and pitched her arm back. "Execute WAVE!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, and threw the weapon with all her might.

Streams of water trailed from it, fusing together into a giant maelstrom that drew in droves of the lesser aliens. Actually, it sucked up surf and sand from the sea as well, turning the already deadly maelstrom into something even larger and more potent than it usually was. The poor Ultiroids were already so badly outmatched that they were pulverised instantly. The attack was so powerful that it even consumed the entire alien spaceship behind it. Great slabs of metal were torn apart, wings breaking into countless smaller pieces before the entire thing was crushed like an empty can and exploded.

"Woah." Tailblue breathed out in disbelief, as salty water rained down from above, a rainbow briefly appearing as it did. "I didn't know it could do that…"

Despite the success of the attack, she could feel the amount of energy it sapped from her and pursed her lips thoughtfully. Most of her time with the Tailsuit was gone, just with the first blow. Yes, it had been necessary to dispatch the enemy quickly, but now she had to figure out a way to deal with Orchidmantisguildy.  
"Well done." The Elemerian praise, standing up from where he's thrown himself to the ground. He gently dusted grains of sand from his arm. "Truly, the power behind that was stunning."

"You really like running your mouth, don't you?" Tailblue groaned.

"And here I thought you wouldn't mind running out the clock until Tailred saves you." He replied. "But if you insist."

The giant alien blitzed forward so fast that he left a cloud of sand in his wake, and when he brought his scythe around in a deadly arc the air was displaced with an audible _whoosh_. Tailblue summoned her last spear and reserves of energy to block the blow, though she could feel her arm numbing slightly from the struggle. It was powerful enough that it threw her off balance, and she was barely able to deflect his followup with his blade like claws.

"Well done!" He congratulated in the middle of his assault.

Tailblue didn't reply. She was pressed far too hard at the moment to risk losing her concentration.

As the fight wore on, she began to notice a few oddities in Orchidmantisguildy's fighting style. At first she thought he was holding back, enjoying drawing the battle out, but she wasn't sure after a while. He was slow to exploit openings every now and then, and he'd give the occasional subtle grunt of pain when he suddenly changed directions. His footwork was excellent, but whenever he had to shift his balance from his left foot to the right, it was just a little slower than the other way around.

_You're injured._ Tailblue realised. _Tailpink did more damage to you than you're letting on…_

Comparatively, she might actually be in better shape than he was. She was tired, not wounded. Her movements were slightly sluggish, but still very powerful. If there was just a way to pin him in place, she was sure she could inflict some serious harm.

"Oh, it looks like you have a plan." Orchidmantisguildy smirked.

Tailblue glanced over behind him, towards Twoearle's modified Elemerian ship that was slowly landing just up the beach from Tailpink. "Looks like you're just about out of time."

"See, I don't think so." Orchidmantisguildy replied. "I've been doing this for a long time, and I'm very good at reading human faces. Tailred isn't on that ship, and I doubt the other warrior, Yellow I believe it was, is there either."

Tailblue grit her jaw.

"I see that I've hit the mark." The alien chuckled. "Which then means time is in my favor. I have reinforcements coming right now in the other dropship, so to defeat you, all I have to do now is **this!" **He spun and flung his scythe, which whipped through the air at lightning speed towards the descending vessel.

"No!" Tailblue gasped, realising the implications. Twoearle was inside, and if she was hurt or killed then Aika would be trapped on this world for the rest of her life! Worse, she could even be trapped on this island! Tailblue had no idea how far they were from the nearest landmass. And that was assuming she was able to defeat Orchidmantisguildy and all his reinforcement that were coming on the smaller ship.

The scythe roared through the air, and in the pilot's chair Twoaerle could only shriek and jerked the controls to one side, but far too slowly to evade the attack. For that long second, it was clear to Tailblue that this expedition had failed, and she should never have left home. She would never see Souji again…

Then from just out of view, Tailpink leapt into the path of the scythe. She lashed out with her hand in what could at best be described as an awkward slap, the tip of her fingers just barely applying force to the weapons haft. That tiny amount of pressure was just enough cause the awkwardly weighted weapon to change path, spinning upwards and away from the ship. It sailed overhead, disappearing into the bush and scrub of the island.

The young teen landed awkwardly on her face, fingers stinging painfully and just the effort of jumping like that drawing new aches from all over her body.

"Oh, thank goodness." Tailblue breathed out, before calling. "Good work, Tailpink!"

"Princess!" Orchidmantisguildy growled, and stomped his foot angrily. "You're not supposed to try and save yourself!"

"Shut up!" Tailblue spun and lashed out with a kick. The force of the blow was enough to launch the bugman off his feet and far away into the surf.

Without giving him a chance to recover, Tailblue dashed across the beach, scooping up Tailpink as she did. "You saved us!" She told her, as she ran up the already lowered ramp of Twoearle's ship, pausing for just long enough to hit the button and close the door.

"Twoearle, take off!" She yelled into her communicator.

"This ship looks just like the other one…" Tailpink looked around the room, the ears atop her head flickering nervously.

"Yeah, that's because it was originally theirs. Hold on, we're taking off." Tailblue held the other girl closer to herself as the ship rattled and groaned. Through the closeness of their bodies, she could feel Tailpink's heart pounding. "It's okay, don't be nervous. You're safe now." Tailblue tried to reassure her, maintaining eye contact.

For some reason this drove the blood to Tailpink's face. "Put me down." She demanded, her long cat tail twitching back and forth.

"Can you walk?" Tailblue asked.

"N-no." She looked away.

"Then I don't think that's a good idea. Sorry, just bear with it until I can get you to bed."

"Bed?!" The girl spluttered. "I have school, I'm fourteen!"

"Oh, really? What time is it?" Tailblue almost instinctively checked her phone, but realised she left it back on Earth because she wouldn't need it here. Not to mention it certainly wouldn't be set to whatever the time was in Tailpink's home. "Alright that's fine. I'm sure Twoearle can drop you off."

The girl didn't answer, just sullenly looking forward and away from Tailblue.

That was fine. She was probably just embarrassed about being saved and carried around like this. _Sorry._ Tailblue apologised to her internally, and resolved not to embarrass her more than necessary. "Hey, so I'm gonna change back to my base form. If you want to recover your energy you should too, though I understand if you don't trust me enough yet."

Again no answer. The pink armour and its Imagine Chaff remained in place.

With an internal shrug, Tailblue transformed back into Aika and carried the middle schooler up stairs. "Did we lose them?" She asked as she stepped onto the bridge.

"Yeah. Because of that hole you put in their ship they can't leave orbit until they repair." Twoearle replied. "So I've just taken us to the other side of the moon for the moment."

"That was quick." Aika murmured. "Um, anyway... Twoearle? Tailpink needs to get back to school today, so is there anyway we can drop her off?"

"What?" Twoearle turned in her chair, and stared at the young teen in disbelief. "Really, those are your priorities?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" She suddenly snapped. "I meant… something else."

"Alright?" Aika gave Twoearle a helpless look.

"Why are you carrying her like that?" The mad scientist asked, an amused tone entering her voice.

"She can't walk." Aika explained, exasperated.

For some reason Twoearle suddenly cackled. "Oh, I get it."

"Get what?"

"Nothing, nothing." Twoearle dismissed. "Tailpink, was it?"

"Yeah?" The girl asked, staring at Twoearle with open suspicion.

"We can explain everything to you right now, but I sort of get the impression you've had a full day. Why don't you have a nap in Aika's bed, while she fixes up lunch for all three of us."

"...Okay."

_Quiet girl._ Aika thought to herself. Or maybe Tailpink was just tired. She felt light in Aika's arms. Though admittedly that might have something to do with the fact that most things felt light to Aika these days.

They crossed the threshold sideways, so as not to risk bumping Tailpink's head or legs on door frame. Gently, Aika laid her on the bed, and pulled up the sheets.

"Who are you?" Tailpink asked suddenly, boldly staring up at Aika. "What are you really doing here? You said you were here to save me, but how do you know who I am?"

"Okay, so you want to do this right now, then?" Aika paused in thought, before sitting on the end of the bed. "Okay, so I already mentioned I'm an alien. I'm from a world called Earth, that was attacked by Elemerians under basically the same conditions yours was. My friend and I went through a very similar experience to what you just went through, but because there were two of us and we were strong, we were able to fight them off and win."

"That's Tailred?"

"Yes, that friend is Tailred." Aika nodded, smiling. "We fought the Elemerians hard enough that we've scared them off for the moment, and now we want to build up our numbers. That's why I'm here. I didn't know who the Tailsuit Warrior of this world would be when I set out, but I wanted to save them from the Elemerians, and recruit them to our cause of defeating Ultimaguil once and for all. I have very little idea of who you are, and I won't know anything about you that you don't want to tell me for as long as you remain transformed. It was just a coincidence that I arrived when I did."

The young teen looked up at her, doubt and confusion in her eyes. "Then who's the woman on the bridge?"

"That's Twoearle. She was the one who gave the Tailsuits to me and my friend-"

"You can't trust her!" Tailpink shouted, sitting up, a panicked tone entering her voice. "She's actually an Elemerian in disguise, they can do that! That Elemerian you fought, Orchidmantisguildy, he gave me this suit, and then he betrayed me so he could harvest more attributes!"

For a moment, Aika felt trapped. She didn't want to dismiss the girl's concerns outright, especially when she had obviously been through a lot, but Aika knew Twoealre well enough to know she wasn't much of a threat to anyone who wasn't a girl under a certain age, anyway. Actually, maybe it was better that Tailpink was a bit weary? Aika didn't exactly know what Twoearle's 'strike range' was for young girls.

"Alright, I'll make sure she stays on the bridge, and I'll do something if she tries to contact anyone, but right now we need her to pilot the ship." Oh no, that just made the girl look more frightened. Gently, Aika reached down and pressed on Tailpink's shoulder, so she was laying in bed. "So for now, you try and get some sleep and trust your senpai to handle it."

"Senpai?"

"Yeah. I mean, you don't have to call me that if you don't want, my name is Aika Tsube, but I have been at this for longer than you have." Aika gave what she hoped was her most confident smile. "I'll keep you safe, I promise. So just relax. If you want to protect your identity, you can drop the transformation when I leave the room, okay?"

Tailpink stared up at her for a long moment, before she broke eye contact and undid the transformation. Her armour disappeared in a pink swirl, leaving behind a white blazer and tasteful skirt. It looked to Aika a lot like a middle school uniform from Japan.

"Alright. Good." She hesitated briefly, wondering if it would be inappropriate to ruffle her hair or something, but decided they weren't that close yet. "Do you want a glass of water, or anything?"

The young cat girl suddenly looked back up at her, tail flickering slightly under the sheets. "A-anything?"

"Uh, sure as long as I can get it for you." Aika didn't like to go back on her word generally, let alone so soon after meeting someone.

"C-c-" The girl swallowed, and tried again. "I want to touch your ears."

Of all the things Aika had expected, that certainly wasn't one of them. "I guess to you they would be pretty strange." She considered saying no, but it didn't really seem like there'd be any harm in it. "Alright, just don't pinch them I guess." With her hands she parted the hair around her ears, revealing them to her new Kouhai. _Kouhai._ She guessed that was the appropriate word to use. Aika leaned in closer so the other girl could reach them more easily. "You don't have to tell me you name, but something to call you other than Tailpink seems like a good idea to me."

"..." Wordlessly, the younger teen reached up with her right hand to touch the organ. Aika wasn't entirely sure what was so fascinating about her ear, but it was enough to keep the young teen's fingers stroking and probing for almost a minute. The tips of her fingers were cold, and left Aika feeling strangely vulnerable, but she bore with it until the touch disappeared.

"Alright." She looked back across at her new Kouhai. "Anything else?"

The girl blushed hotly and looked away. Aika supposed she would be pretty embarrassed about feeling someone else's ears up, too. "Nakatomi. My name is Isabella Nakatomi."

"Alright, Isabella." Aika stood up and walked to the door. "Good night."

Isabella rolled over so she was facing away from Aika. As the door closed, Aika could have sworn she heard the other girl add quietly. "Good night, S-Senpai."

_Quite the handful._ Aika thought to herself as she walked down the hall and back towards the bridge. For some reason, Twoearle was still cackling loudly.

**AN: Brief note on Japanisms. You might have noticed that I almost never use them, so no 'san' or 'chan' or anything like that, but in the case of 'senpai' and 'kouhai', I'm pretty sure most anime fanfiction readers would know what they mean, and there's no real English equivalent. Plus Senpai sounds so sweet to my ears. Just the fact that Iroha uses it is part of why I like her better than the other characters in Rom Com SNAFU.**


	12. 12 Aftermath

"Are you ready?" Souji asked Erina wearily. Neither of them had transformed yet.

Across from him, the blonde shamefacedly stared at the ground, nervously touching her fingers together. "No." She answered honestly.

A long sigh threatened to tear itself from Souji, but he stopped himself out of consideration for her feelings. They'd been at this for nearly two weeks, and so far had nothing to show for it. The moment Erina transformed, all her reason and self control went out of the window. If Tail Yellow didn't have to do anything, she could stand there looking uncomfortable, but the moment it came time to practice fighting she would just unload all her munitions in a hailstorm of fire that left Tail Red frightened for her own safety.

So far Souji had tried to get Erina to try and remember what was at stake, to count backwards from a hundred, to meditate, and even just try to think of something she found repellant, and nothing had worked. Each and every time, the result had been rockets and energy interspersed with uncomfortable sounds of a woman's arousal. At first Souji had suspected the embarrassment was just encouraging Erina to continue to fail, but as time went on it became clearer that the older girl was feeling guilty. Now he felt bad for suspecting her like that.

"Alright." Souji took a deep breath, and scratched the back of his head, trying to think of more they could try and coming up blank. At last he admitted aloud, "Ah, I have no idea."

Erina didn't reply, sheepishly surveying the battered quarry. All around them were craters and small holes from rockets and blasts of energy, an entire sheer cliff of carved granite burned black with plasma scoring. It was like a record of her failures, and endless display of blemishes where there should be none.

They were alone out here, having arrived via Space Jump Catapult. Mikoto had stayed behind at the cafe, probably busying herself by cleaning or helping Miharu. The sun was at its peak, leaving their shadows as a small black circles underneath them.

"Okay." Souji relented after a while. "We're already out here, so maybe we can try and practice something else, then?"

"I don't want to give up." Erina looked up again.

"We're not giving up!" He quickly reassured her. "Just... This isn't working. Even a little bit. So, we're just going to have to figure out a new way of doing this, and in the meantime we'll take a break."

"...Okay." She conceded, reluctantly. "What were you thinking of?"

Breathing out, Souji frowned and considered how best to answer that. It was just an idea, one that seemed sillier to him the more he thought of it, but he also couldn't find the hole in his logic, either. "So, do you remember how my suit turned me into Sora for a while?"

She nodded.

"I never told you guys how I fixed that, just as far as you guys were concerned I just showed up cured one day."

"Aika was really happy." Erina remembered, and added, "So, how did you fix it?"

"...I'm not really sure. I had a dream, and in it I talked to someone. That person helped me resolve some of the issues I had, and when it was over I was back to normal." Souji frowned. "And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I was talking directly to my own Twintal Attribute."

A surprised look came over Erina's face. "That's incredible."

"I think so, too." Souji agreed. "Anyway, if I'm right, doesn't that mean any of us should be able to talk to our attributes, too? I mean, if it's been done once, it can be done again, right?"

"That… makes sense, but it also assumes that you were talking to your attribute, and not just having a dream that helped resolve your issues." Erina pointed out. She was a studious girl, with at least some understanding of the sciences. "What did you really talk about?"

This was a little embarrassing to talk about for Souji, but they were alone and he trusted Erina to be discreet. After a little hesitation, he began to explain. "I love Twintails, I have for a long time, and not just because I think they're attractive. I mean, obviously I do think they're beautiful, but also the shape and variety of them. Just… Everything about them really. The only reason I never wore them myself is because I'm a guy, and people would think I'm a weirdo. I mean, they already do when I just talk about them, but imagine if I wore them?"

"Well, that's not something to be ashamed of." Erina pointed out. "Changing the way you dress and act due to social pressure is really common."

"I know, but that's not really where I was going with this. Just listen for a bit." Souji breathed out and continued. "When Twoearle gave me the Tailsuit and I transformed in Tailred, it was the first time I ever got to actually experience my very own Twintails. I was overjoyed, and I still am. It's really a dream come true for me."

It was a strange dream to have, but he saw no look of judgement on Erina's face.

"But for a while their, I was starting to feel ashamed. Not because of Tailred, but because I was too weak to wear my Twintails outside of the transformations. How could I say I loved something like that, while at the same time be too ashamed of it to wear it proudly? That's what I talked to the attribute about. I'm pretty sure the reason I was transformed into a girl was because my attribute, or maybe just the suit, was trying to solve the problem for me by giving me a way out. It was a way I could wear Twintails in public, without having to be ashamed."

"And so, when your dream helped you understand it was okay to love Twintails without necessarily wearing them, you transformed back to your normal self." Erina followed the train of logic. "That's really fascinating, Souji."

"I mean, yeah I guess." He scratched the back of his head.

There was a pause as Erina thought about his suggestion, "Okay, so it could be that we could talk to our attributes directly, but isn't it possible that the only reason you were able to talk to yours was the strength of your Elemera?"

"...I hadn't thought of that." He admitted.

"Also… I think you're missing the more important thing here." Erina continued shyly. "Um, if you don't mind me saying."

Souji frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's nice that you were able to talk to your Twintails, but isn't it more significant that you've provided evidence that your will and emotional state can affect a physiological change, even when you're not transformed?"

There were a few big words in that sentence, and it took Souji a little while to parse out their meaning. "I'm not sure I understand." He admitted.

"Um, well, basically your emotions and resolutions made you into a girl, right? So if you learned to control that, couldn't you do all kinds of other stuff too?" Erina bit her lip and added, "Or at the very least you should be able to become Sora at will."

"...You might be right." Souji realised. "Wow."

"I mean, it's something for you to work on." Erina looked away nervously. "That way we're not just wasting time."

"Wait, though. If it's about how we feel, doesn't that mean the reason you can't control yourself is because of some other problem you have? Like, you seem to have kind of problems with your mother, so maybe your Tailsuit problems have something to do with that?"

As he spoke, he saw Erina who was already quite diminutive seem to shrink in on herself. "Um, maybe."

Part of him wanted to press her on the issue, but he knew it was an awkward topic for her. "How about we call it here for a day." He suggested after the awkward silence stretched out for nearly half a minute. "We'll take some time to think things over, and we'll try again when you're feeling up to it."

She nodded her consent, and they both used the devices on their wrists to be recalled by the Space Jump Catapult.

* * *

With a painful groan, Orchidmantisguildy sunk into his chair on the bridge of his mothership. All around him, Elemerians desperately pretended not to notice his obvious weakness, but many of them were thinking of a potential promotion. A blunder of this scale in Ultimagil hadn't been heard of since Dragonguildy, and he at least had the good grace to pay for that mistake with his life. Orchidmantisguildy was painfully aware that such a failure might even draw the ire of Dark Grasper, herself...

It was only a matter of time until someone young and ambitious challenged him for the right to sit in that chair, and he knew it. It irked him that such fools could possibly think they stood a chance, even as battered as he was. His wounds and his future problems weren't really what was on his mind, though.

The majority of his thoughts were with Isabella and her new friend. Not only would such a crude and violent girl a be a _terrible _influence on the princess, but her mere presence on this world carried concerning implications.

Looking about the bridge, he quickly scanned through the faces until he found the one he was after. "You there!"

A feathered Elemerian with a beak, glanced about to see if Orchidmantisguildy was talking to someone else, before pointing to himself. "Me?"

"Yes, Swallowguildy was it?"

"Uh, it's Sparrowguildy, sir." He corrected, nervously.

"You were stationed on Earth before this, yes?" Orchidmantisguildy. "I seem to vaguely remember that?"

"Uh, yes sir."

"So you'd be familiar with Tailsuit Warriors of that world, I assume?"

"Absolutely." Sparrowguildy answered confidently. "I've spent countless hours analyzing their combat data."

"Then can you tell me now, with absolute certainty…" Orchidmantisguildy trailed off dramatically as he fished about for a remote. He found it wedged between his armrest and the cushion, and pointed it at the hologram projector. A rotating globe of planet Catyu flickered, and was replaced with a still frame from the recent assault on their ship. Paused mid attack, arm pitched back and a cruel sneer on her face, Tail Blue was poised to impale a helpless Elemerian bridge attendant who was covering his eyes to his impending demise. "There we go. As I was saying, can you tell me with absolute certainty, that this is in fact Tailblue of Earth?"

"Uh…" Ironicially enough, Sparrowguildy _swallowed_ nervously. "Well, sir, I haven't really had the chance to carry out a proper analysis yet."

"Yes, yes, but looking at this picture, can you reasonably conclude that it is of anyone else?"

"...Sir, I'm quite confident that it's her." The minion turned back to the image. "And not just that, but I can carry out a very quick analysis to be certain. It will only take a few seconds."

"Go ahead." Orchidmantisguildy gestured at the hologram.

Sparrowguildy reached under his desk, and took out a plank of wood. He stood and approached the image, holding the flat surface up next to Tailblue's chest. "Mmhm. As you can see, even compared to a cutting board, Tailblue of planet Catyu presents a level surface. With this, we can say with absolute certainty that she's match to Tailblue of Planet Earth."

"Triple A cup." Someone on the bridge murmured aloud in awe, and a shudder went down the spine of many present. Well, down the exoskeleton more literally, but regardless, all of them had seen the footage of Leviaguildy's brutal demise.

"I see." Orchidmantisguildy leaned forward in his throne, a curled fist placed against his chin. "Gentleguildys, we are witnessing the birth of something I had not expected to see. You, Sparrowguildy, dispatch a messenger to high command."

"What should I say, sir?" He saluted.

"Tell them that Ultimaguil is under attack."

* * *

Isabella woke up slowly, her eyelids lazily fluttering open as she stretched luxuriously in her bed. Except it wasn't her bed. The unfamiliarity of her room slowly made itself known to her. As she took in the high metal ceiling the memories of her previous day came back to her. That was right. Isabella had used Senpai's bed.

For some reason she kept circling back to that thought, even as she stood up and tried to find a mirror. She wasn't going through Senpai's stuff! But she had just been asleep, so of course she'd need to touch up her makeup and do maintenance on her hair. Her perm wouldn't take care of itself, after all. Unfortunately, Isabella realised that she'd left her compact inside her school bag, which was probably hanging off her desk where she left it. Additionally, she couldn't find anything in the room other than a panel in the wall which contained some clothing, so there wasn't even a hairbrush to get her bedhead under control.

"Shouldn't have gone to sleep." Isabella groaned, knowing that she probably looked ridiculous. She even cried during her attempted escape from Orchidmantisguildy's ambush, so her eye liner was definitely smudged. Normally she'd dare anyone to question her appearance in school, but for some reason the thought of Senpai seeing her like this made her less bold. "Whatever." She shook her head, dispelling the thought, and strutting forward as confidently as she could to open the door panel.

When she stepped out into the corridor, she heard the sound of something frying in the kitchen. Cautiously, she advanced down the corridor towards the noise, and peaked around the door to see Aika in an apron, standing over a steamking wok. That was a lot of rice… Was Senpai expecting guests?

As if she knew she was there, Aika turned her head to look directly at Isabella. "You're up. I was just about to serve dinner."

All of Isabella's feelings of self consciousness reemerged at once, and she quickly ducked back around the door to hide her face. "Um… Is there a bathroom I can use?"

"Yep. Just down the hall, second last door on the left!" Aika called out to her. "If you need, I can get you a change of clothes."

"Y-Yes. Thanks." Face burning, Isabella hurried in the direction suggested and closed herself in the room.

The bathroom was strange, with visible pipelines running through the room in its corners. It was too large for its contents as well, just a small shower in its center with a curtain to draw around it that was incongruous with the rest of the room. Aside from that, there was a mirror and a cupboard on one wall. When she checked her reflection she was every bit as ugly as she feared, with obvious lines running through her mascara and slightly bloodshot eyes. That wasn't even getting into her knotty, poofy hair. There was no way she was going to show her face again until this was fixed.

She had no choice but to take a quick shower, during the middle of which Aika opened the door to leave a change of clothes and a towel. Isabella didn't really have the time nor the supplies to complete her usual morning routine, but she at least didn't have to be embarrassed when she emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later with a clean face, fresh clothes that smelled of lavender, and her hair done up in a plain, unadorned pair of twintails.

There wasn't a dining room, but on the bridge there was a pair of chairs sitting next to a currently disabled hologram projector, it's flat surface serving as a table.

"Feeling better?" Aika asked from where she sat, an enormous bowl of stirfry sat in front of her. "Yours is there." She pointed to an empty chair with a more reasonably sized serving placed in front of it. "Sorry, but it's all frozen ingredients, so it's not the freshest."

"It's fine." Isabella answered quietly, and took the chair.

They ate in silence for a while until Aika asked, "So, would you like us to take you home directly, or maybe drop you somewhere nearby?"

Home. That was another can of worms Isabella hadn't considered. No doubt her elder brother was upset when she didn't come home from school, he might have even been bothered to tell mother and father.

"What time is it?" Isabella asked, rather than answer.

"Sorry, I'm not sure." Aika apologised. "But it's been three hours since you went to sleep."

It wasn't even that late then. Nobody at home would've noticed she was missing, but they might have heard she'd skipped school.

"Um. I can just call my driver, so you can just drop me off in the city." Isabella answered after a moment.

"It's really no inconvenience to us." Aika reassured her, then thought about it. "Unless you don't trust us to know where you live."

"That's not what I meant!" The words spilled out of Isabella in a rush. "I mean, it's just that, uh… I have a family and… it's complicated." She finished lamely.

"Ah, you've got your own circumstances." The understanding in Senpai's voice was reassuring. "Alright, but if you need me to walk you home, or maybe give your parents an excuse, I can do that."

"Thanks, but it's fine." Looking to change the topic, Isabella looked over to the pilot's chair. "Is, um, your friend around?"

"'Friend?'" Aika frowned and sighed. "Right now she's sleeping. After parking us on the moon, she went to bed."

"We're on the moon?!" Isabella's chair scraped against the floor as she stood up suddenly.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that would be new for you." Aika scratched the back of her head. "Here, let me just minimise the screen." The older girl got up and walked over to the pilot's chair, where she pushed a button, and the monitor on one wall changed from Black to a crystal clear image of the grey, crater marked surface of Catyu's moon.

"Holy shit." Isabella stared in disbelief. "That's real?"

"Yeah." Aika reassured her. "I thought with fighting all the Elemerians, this wouldn't be the most amazing sight to you anymore."

"Wait, wait!" Isabella covered her mouth. "Does this mean I'm the first person on the moon?!"

"...Has no one on your world ever gone to the moon before?"

"I mean, I've read that it's possible, that we have the technology, but it'd cost trillions and there's nothing up here, so no government was willing to pay for it." Isabella gasped, and looked back out the window. "I can't believe this."

"Congratulations." Aika smiled at her, but then added. "The rest of the world will never know, though."

Isabella realised that was true, and sank back into her chair. "Oh." She'd come so far, and no one would even notice.

"...Do you want to go outside?"

"What?" Isabella looked over at her.  
"Our Tailsuits. With them we can survive for hours in space." Aika pointed a thumb towards the view. "If you like, we can go for a walk."

* * *

The airlock opened soundlessly, Tailblue standing aside so Tailpink could step outside first.

The younger teen had a look of open wonder on her face as her foot sank into the powdery, lunar grit. "This is real." She breathed out in disbelief, bending down to take up a handful of sand. Rubbing it into her palm with a thumb, she stood back up to survey the horizon.

Tailblue couldn't help but feel pleased. Earlier when she'd asked about Tailpink's home, the younger girl's face had darkened considerably. It really been clumsy of Tailblue to draw up what were obviously some bad memories. But now, looking at the excitement and wonderment on Tailpink's face, she felt like she'd made up for that a little bit.

"I-It's the moon!" Under the strange effects of low gravity, Tailpink took a step forward only to rise a foot higher into the air than she expected. "Wah!"

"Be careful!" Taliblue called out to her, only heard over the suit's comms. "Definitely don't jump! With your Tailsuit on, you'll go sailing into space."  
"Okay!" Tailpink called back, now taking gentler, more measured steps. "Senpai, this is incredible!"

A smile curled up Tailblue's lips at her enthusiasm. After a month in space, and half a year of fighting aliens, the experience was somewhat lost on her, but it was still pleasant to be out of the ship. As Tailpink smiled and rushed about, Tailblue found herself caught up in her excitement, and played along with the younger girl's games of catch with moon rocks, even making a pair of dust angels by lying on their backs. They even gathered enough rocks together to spell out the message, "TAILPINK WAS HERE!"

An hour later, they stepped back into the airlock, a nicely rounded moon rock clutched preciously in Tailpink's hands.


	13. 13 An End To Daddy Issues

Their spaceship lacked any form of active camouflage, so Twoearle was forced to park it beyond the city's outskirts. From there Isabella and Aika had transformed, and then traveled the rest of the way to the Nakatomi family mansion together. When they were within comfortable walking distance, they dropped transformation and started up the long road. As they walked, they were surrounded on either side by large fences and even larger houses. Aika, who was from a mid sized country town, was a little awed by the enormous display of wealth on either side of her.

"I really feel out of place." She admitted to Isabella. "When I left Earth I didn't pack anything ritzy." Glancing down at her plain blue tank top and khaki shorts, she couldn't help but regret that decision.

At least disguising herself as a cat person wasn't too hard. Twoearle had pretty easily created a set of hologrammed fake ears that looked fairly realistic, though it would be a problem if someone tried to touch them. Her normal human ears were hidden behind her hair usually, so that was fine. If someone asked about her lack of a tail she could just claim it was a childhood accident.

"Do you, uh, live around here?" Aika asked.

"Yeah." Isabella pointed a finger up the road. "The big one at the end of the street."

It really was big. Even from several hundred metres away it looked almost more like a set of apartments blocks then a house. It was western style.

"Oh, wow." Aika breathed out in disbelief. "Will they even let me in?"

"I've brought other guests over before." Isebella promised, self consciously tucking the moon rock under her arm.

"I'll stick to you, then." Aika smiled at her. "Or I'll definitely get lost."

A small smile touched the edges of Isabella's lips in response, before she noticed and straightened her lips again.

_I wonder why she feels like she has to hold herself back?_ Aika filed it away as a question for later.

The gates loomed as they came closer, a camera tracking their movements. Isabella only had to wave her hand for an electronic buzzer to go off, and the gate swung open with a click.

"Don't they need to check my ID?"

"No."

They headed up the driveway, only seeing a small handful of gardners before they arrived at the front door, who bowed to Isabella and her guest respectfully. The manor's front door was opened from the inside as they were approached by a kindly looking old man with a moustache, wearing a butler's uniform.

"Here, ma'am." A maid offered Aika a pair of indoor shoes.

"Ah, okay." Aika suspected they were worth more than her entire wardrobe on earth, and gingerly pulled them on, half terrified she'd tear them with her newfound super strength.

The walls of the manor were lined with what she could only assume to be classy artworks, though she didn't know enough about Nyaponese culture to be certain. As they climbed the stairs, she was scared to touch the railing for fear of dirtying it somehow.

"This is my room." Isabella told her as they stepped through the doorway.

"This is where you wanted the secret base built?" Aika looked around curiously. Apart from its enormous size, it looked like a fairly normal teen girl's room. There were lots of bright colours and posters of handsomely androgynous boy band members. On one wall there was a cork board with pink, green, and orange pins with numerous photos of cat people that Aika didn't recognise. They were mostly teenagers that looked to be about Isabella's age, though there were large holes in the board where photos were apparently missing.

"Don't be nosey, Senpai." Isabella chided, walking over to a door in one wall. "But I was thinking it could go in here."

Aika followed her through and found herself in a vast, walk-in closet. Rows and rows of designer clothes and shoes. Stylish jackets, skirts, winter wear, stocking and summer dresses, on all walls and all sides. Every possible surface was covered in articles of clothing that were individually more expensive than Aika's eventual wedding dress would probably be.

"Is that a solid gold barrette?" Aika gaped, approaching one cabinet lined with scrunchies and other twintail paraphernalia.

"I never wear it." Isabella sighed, looking away. "I don't know why I got them."

"Wow." Aika breathed out, looking around, before shaking her head. "This won't work, Twoearle needs access to the ground floor."

"There's a downstairs." Isabella walked forwards, and pulled a rack of coats to one side, revealing another door.

There was a narrow staircase leading down, at the bottom of which the two of them entered a much smaller room, this one filled with boxes and plastic wrapped clothing put aside for storage. It wasn't exactly unclean, but it didn't give the same impression of being traveled or used that the rest of the house had.

"Twoearle." Aika held the wrist mounted communicator up to her mouth. "I'm down here and it looks suitable."

"Can you get the kid to send me a photo?" She replied over the device.

Aika glanced at Isabella who snapped a shot with her phone's camera, and texted it. "It's on it's way."

"Okay, I got it." Twoearle answered. "Yeah, it looks like it'll do. I'm gonna need about twelve hours, though. And sound proofing if other people use that mansion… Unless the kid wants to tell her parents about this?"

Aika glanced at Isabella who shook her head. "That doesn't seem like an option."

"Alright, I'll have to use another one of our spare Elemera's then." Twoearle breathed out with annoyance. "I think there's a librarian one around here somewhere? Pretty sure I could use that to make some kind of anti-sound field, or whatever."

Aika turned back to Isabella. "Alright, well, thanks for showing me around."

"Are you leaving already?" There was an obvious note of disappointment to the girl's tone.

Those large eyes brought Aika up short. "Well, I'm sorry, but I've actually been awake for about twenty hours now. I'm not about to pass out or anything, but I was planning on sleeping."

"Oh." Isabella looked away.

Why was this upsetting her so much? Aika frowned. It was true though, she really did want to close her eyes, which sounded like a perfectly normal thing to want to her. Though, as she looked closer she noticed how the tip of Isabella's tail was nervously twitching back and forth, while her shoulders were hunched forward slightly.

_She's scared._ Aika realised dimly. It really was was obvious when she thought about. The Elemerians could come back at any time, after all, and this could well be the first time a sheltered rich girl like Isabella had ever been through something traumatic like that.

_What's a good compromise? _She searched for a moment for a solution that would satisfy both of them. "We can turn this into a sleepover?" Aika suggested.

Instantly, Isabella perked up. "Really?"

"Yeah, why not?" Aika yawned loudly. "I'm sick of the sound of the life support anyway, and I bet in a mansion this big your maids will be able to dig a futon out of somewhere."

"Oh, no need." Isabella energetically turned and hurried up the stairs. "Just use my bed."

"I can't do that, where will you sleep?" Aika protested.

"It's fine, I'm not tired." She called back. "I just slept, and I probably need to talk to my family anyway."

They reemerged back into Isabella's bedroom, where she summoned a pair of maids to insistently bundle Aika off to the bathroom for a quick shower. She could have resisted more, but it seemed rude to refuse such hospitality, though she had to insist they stay away from her when she scrubbed herself down if only to stop them discovering her false ears. Much to Aika's surprise, what was promised to be a quick shower revealed itself to be a massive indoor bath, like she'd expect to see at a traditional rural bathhouse.

Bathing alone in the giant pool left her feeling enormously self conscious. There were statues of cherubs, for goodness sake. The sheer amount of wealth on display was staggering. She was pretty sure there were flecks of gold in the soap!

When she emerged from the water she found her clothes missing, and a set of fresh pajamas prepared for her along with a fluffy bathrobe. Rather than call for 'the help,' she dried herself and quickly took care of her hair. Moving quietly, she left the bathroom, tracing her way back to Isabella's room via memory.

"Really, what is she thinking, inviting someone like that here?" A hushed voice came from behind a slightly ajar door, and Aika paused when she heard it. "Isabella just gets worse every day, I swear."

Glancing through the crack between it and the doorframe, Aika observed the two maids who had just guided her to the bath folding laundry and arranging it in different baskets.

"Just bear with it." The other maid quietly answered. "It's what you're paid for."

"Did you see her new friend?" The first one continued. "Those are fighter's calluses, not to mention she's missing her tail. Clearly a dangerous sort."

"It's not our business." The other chided without heart.

"Look at this!" The first maid stepped away for a moment, and lifted an article of clothing Aika recognised from a pile of dirty laundry. "This is her bra, triple AAA cup."

"Put it away." The second maid groaned.

"Why even wear it if it's that small!" The first maid giggled. "Why even make it in that size in the first pl-" There was a loud cracking sound, and the speaker jumped with surprise. "What was that?"

Aika didn't realise that she'd gripped the door handle too hard by accident and crushed it. Nor did she notice when she slammed the door open with so much force that it was thrown off its hinges and crashed into the ground with a loud bang. The look of total surprise on both maids faces went completely unnoticed as well. It wasn't even really a conscious decision to lift the maid from the floor by her lapels, either. Aika only really noticed where she was and what she was doing when the screaming started.

_Probably overreacted there._ Feeling awkward, she suddenly let go of the maid who fell to the ground and stumbled onto her backside. The woman scooted back on her bottom, pale faced and trembling as she stared up in terror. For a lack of anything to say that could possibly justify her actions, Aika stated flatly. "You shouldn't bully people." Then she snatched her bra from the maid's hands and stormed out.

* * *

It had been a few hours since Senpai had gone to sleep, and Isabella had spent the time since sitting on the couch in her reception, trying to play on her phone but unable to focus. Her mind was simply too abuzz to properly tune out. This was the first moment she'd gotten to herself since Orchidmantisguildy's betrayal, and she wasn't really able to forget so easily. She hadn't been particularly close to him, or shared any deep secrets for that matter. They weren't ever really friends in the first place, he was just using her for her Elemera, and she was using him for his spaceship. That was it.

But somehow it still stung.

The words he'd said to her were still running through her head. Obviously he was just a gross wierdo projecting his desires onto her, but at the same time it was hard to see how he was wrong when he called her a lonely princess. He was a stupid creep, and she wished Aika-senpai had killed him, but that didn't mean he was wrong.

The closest thing she had to a friend now was someone she'd known for less than twenty four hours, and her family didn't even bare thinking about. It was pathetic to admit it, even just to herself, but Isabella was basically alone. Her eyes darted to the door, and she thought of the moonrock sitting in front of her scrapboard. Well, pretty close to alone, but not quite there yet. No thanks to any effort on Isabella's part, though.

Suddenly there was a knock on her door.

"What?"

"Miss Isabella, your father is home, and he wants to see you."

"Great." Isabella rolled her eyes and huffed. "Does he really have the time, though?"

Her attempt at humor went unanswered. With another sigh, she climbed to her feet and made her way to her father's wing of the mansion, followed closely by the maid. There was light visible under the door of her father's office.

The maid knocked politely, and announced. "Miss Isabella, Mr Nakatomi."

"Send her in."

The maid held the door open, and Isabella stepped into the office. It had been a while since she'd been inside this room, but it remained unchanged from her memories. Rich mahogany furniture with black carved panels on every wall depicting moment's of Nyaponse history. Lot's of burning cities and beheadings, the effect was quite creepy.

"Isabella." Her father greeted. He was well past his middle years, with more gray than colour in his hair. It had also been some time since he'd exercised as well, leaving him with a noticeable set of jowls and wrinkles. His eyes were still clear though, with the obvious glint of intelligence. Isabella had seen photographs of when he was younger, and he wasn't bad looking.

"Dad." She grimaced.

There was a long enough pause for the silence to feel awkward. "Who's your guest?" He eventually asked.

"Just a friend." Isabella shrugged.

"Yes, well she attacked a maid earlier."

"What?" Isabella didn't believe it. "Why?"

"According to the other maid who witnessed it, she was acting in defense of your honor."

Despite the situation, Isabella was nearly overcome by the urge to smile goofily, as she broke eye contact and looked at the floor. She only barely managed to keep it off her face. _Oh, Senpai. _"Are you saying I have to send her home?"

"We can do that in the morning, I assume she's staying the night if she hasn't left yet." He glanced at a clock that read eleven thirty. "Somehow I doubt she'll be able to pay for the damages at any rate."

"Were their medical expenses?"

"No, she just managed to break a door somehow." The man sighed. "That's really not what I wanted to talk about, though."

_Yeah, figures._ It was Isabella's turn to sigh.

"What on all of Catyu is going on with you?" He frowned. "Who flew you to Catifornia? I checked with the bank, and you definitely didn't buy any international tickets."

That was going to be hard to explain.

"According to the teacher's at your school, you're not with your friends anymore, and now you invite this violent delinquent into my house? And above all, why are you sending money to the Meowritanian government?!" Bewilderment leaked into his voice.

"Dad, I'm Tailpink." She'd barely even realised she'd spoken the words until she blurted them out. It was only as she heard the sound of them, that she felt her stomach plumet, and she once again had to break eye contact.

"What?" He said, disbelieving.

"Transform." She said aloud defiantly, and suddenly transformed into the hero. "See?"

The old man fell back down into his chair. "W-what? How?"

She dropped the transformation and sat down in another chair. Whatever she intended to say came out completely different from what actually did. "Dad, I fucked up and I don't know what to do."

Maybe it was the vulnerable note in his daughter's voice that did it, but he seemed to sober from his surprise and disbelief. "What did you do?" He asked gently. "Tell me from the start."

"...Okay." She agreed.

And for the first time in years, father and daughter had much needed conversation. Isabella told the story from the start, and by the time she got to the end it was well past midnight. He listened to her, only ever interrupting to ask for clarification, but otherwise being careful to understand what was said.

By the time her story caught up with current events, Isabella was feeling surprisingly tired. Most of her battles with the Elemerian before this point hadn't felt that bad when she fought them, but in retrospect they all took on a more sinister light. Orchidmantisguildy had been there the entire time, offering words of encouragement and praise at every available opportunity. Anything to keep her fighting. He simpered so pathetically that it was almost impossible to believe he was head of the invasion of Catyu, though maybe licking boots was how he climbed to his rank.

Isabella didn't really know how she expected her father to react, but by the time she was done he merely sat in contemplative silence. His fingers steepled under his chin, he stared at her in silence for a long time, before he said just one thing in utter disbelief. "Twintails...? Really?"

Despite herself, Isabella burst into giggles.  
"My goodness." He leaned back into his chair, running a hand through his hair. "That's why the aliens are invading?"  
"I know, it's so stupid." She was still laughing.

"Well, glad to know what the stakes are at any rate." He breathed out through his nose. "So, I'm guessing you want my advice."

She hesitated before nodding.

"Quit."

Maybe she should have expected that.

"Your alien friend, Aika, has said she can find someone else to be the tailsuit warrior? Then even if you were to quit, it wouldn't do any harm to your new friend." He listed off each reason in his fingers. "No one's paying you to do this, so it's not profitable. In addition, it sounds like dangerous work." He returned his hands to the desk. "There's no good reason to do it."

When he put it like that, it was hard to disagree. It was dangerous work with little reward that could easily be delegated to someone else. "But-" She closed her mouth, not sure what she had been about to argue.

"But?"

"…I want to do it." Isabella admitted.

"I see." He breathed out through his nose. "Then do it, I suppose."

"But you just said I shouldn't?"

"No, I said _why _you shouldn't." He corrected. "If it's something that you want to do, then it doesn't really matter if it's profitable or not, just do it."

"Really?" She said in disbelief. "It's that simple?"

"Well, not quite that simple, but you can't do everything for profit." He snorted. "Lord knows how much _you've_ cost me."

She flinched at that. "Dad, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." He sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I can see how I've been quite irresponsible. Honestly, it's just money. It's not like we're lacking it."

"No, I mean I'm sorry for how I've been." Isabella hastily corrected. "That stupid alien was right. This entire time I've been trying to punish you, and then been sad when you didn't want to spend time with me, making me want to do whatever I could to hurt you even more. I've just been so angry this whole time and-"

"Isabella." He interrupted, standing up. "I understand." Walking around the desk, he took the seat next to Isabella and put a hand on her shoulder. "Before I married your mother, back when you were both living in Mew York together, it was easy for me to see you. My business interests are there after all, but when the two of you moved to Nyapon I should have realised what that would do to you. Moving to a new country, learning a new language, and I should have known your siblings wouldn't be happy to meet you, either." He sighed. "Not to mention I'm almost never home."

Isabella remembered those days painfully well. The only way she was able to make friends was by buying them with snacks and gifts.

"I can't promise things will get better, but just know that I do love you." He reached out to pull her into a gentle hug. "And I'm not angry."

She returned the gesture. "I love you too, Dad."


	14. 14 I Guess Piranha's Eat Eucalyptus Now

After hours spent underground, Twoearle reemerged blinking into the sunlight. If she were a mechanic, her hands would no doubt be covered in grease, but the sort of engineering she did was less of the combustion sort and more of the psychic-ish kind. Alas, there was no dramatic evidence of the hard work she'd carried out over the last twelve hours beyond a little light sensitivity and a mild headache. Somehow she doubted anyone would thank her for it, even if she was covered in cuts and burns.

"I thought we were going to build it in your closet?" She muttered, giving the sun a baleful glare as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead.

"Dad wanted it in the pool house." Isabella answered with a shrug. Currently, and much to Twoearle's resentment, she was languidly laying on her back, atop a deck chair, her pale skin protected from the sun by a well placed umbrella. She was dressed in a tasteful swimsuit with ruffles, in what Twoearle could only assume was a misguided attempt to seduce Aika. Little did the poor young fool realise that the sight of anything larger B cup would only serve to enrage that beast.

Twoearle gave her a dirty look. "You know, it doesn't speak highly of how trustworthy you are that you blabbed our secret to your dad less than a day after meeting us."

"Hmph." The little brat sniffed. "Do you need a drink, or are you done building my hideout?"

'My hideout', was it? Rather than answer, Twoearle decided to wave over a nearby maid carrying a tray of icy, fruity beverages of some kind. They tasted a lot like apple cider, but Catyu was a whole different world so they could be literally anything. Isabella seemed to notice her answer was being delayed in favor of Twoearle's parched throat and frowned.

Twoearle drew it out for as long as possible, too. Taking small sips, one at a time, before crunching on the ice cubes and grabbing a second drink.

Long seconds passed, Isabella getting more and irritated while Twoearle smirked at her. The only sound they could hear was Aika's kicks and strokes as she plowed through the water like an organic jet ski. Every movement threw up tall geysers of water into the air, and the water of the pool was white with bubbles from the sheer force of the movement.

Twoearle could only shake her head in disbelief at the sight. Why Aika had even bothered to include swimming in her exercise routine, Twoearle couldn't tell. It wasn't like anything under normal gravity could really challenge her, but nevertheless she had insisted it was great aerobic exercise.

_Maybe if I build her a wave pool in the gravity room she might actually feel challenged._

"Well?" Isabella scowled at Twoearle.

It took her a moment to remember what they'd been talking about, and only a half second longer to smirk with victory that the younger girl had lost patience first. "Shouldn't you be in school?" Twoearle needled her a little further, relishing the win. "It's like, twelve thirty?"

"It's a Saturday." Isabella rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses.

That was fair enough, Twoearle thought to herself. "Yeah, I'm done. Gateway to Earth, monitoring room, space jump catapult, the works. It's all finished."

"Finally, took you long enough." Isabella sat up and called out, "Senpai!"

"I'd like to know how long it'd take you to build a portal between universes." Twoearle grumbled. "How about a little gratitude?"

Isabella just gave her another hostile glare, before waving back at the pool in her continued attempt to get Aika's attention. "Senpai!"

So far, Twoearle didn't really think much of the newest warrior. She seemed vain, shallow, and far too devoted to that flat chested gorilla. At first her little crush had seemed amusing to Twoearle, but she soon realised it was accompanied by a snarky, petulant little brat that was convinced Twoearle was some kind of Elemerian infiltrator.

Not to mention she kept reporting every little thing Twoearle did to Aika, like some kind of watch/lap dog. So far she hadn't really had anything to dob Twoearle in for, but that didn't stop her from trying. All twoearle had intended to do was talk to her about her crush, and the girl had immediately run off to hide behind Aika's skirts, saying Twoearle had tried to corner her.

Immediately Aika had assumed Twoearle had tried to sexually assault the girl, and uppercut her so hard that it made a dent in the ceiling. _And that was a high ceiling._ Twoearle rubbed the back of her head, searching for a lump or bruise as she remembered it. Since then there had been no love lost between her and the recruit.

"Are you sure you really want to be a Tailsuit Warrior?" Twoearle asked Isabella, as Aika smoothly jumped out of the pool, fully cleared the side rail, and landed on her feet perfectly in one motion.

The girl just sniffed and turned her nose up again.

"Is the teleporter done?" Aika asked as she walked over, accepting a towel that a maid offered then ducked away unobtrusively. "Thanks."

"Basically, yeah." Twoearle answered, and paused. "I think."

"What do you mean 'you think'?"

"I mean I've never built one before, so there's a chance it'll need a bit of tuning."

"You built at least six of them back on Earth?" Aika pointed out.

"No, no, no. Those were space jump catapults, not interdimensional wormholes." Twoearle scoffed. "Look, I get it's confusing, but try to keep up."

Suddenly both Aika and Isabella wore matching glares, aimed at Twoearle. "What's the difference?" Isabella asked.

Well, it made sense that a fourteen year old might need the extra explanation. "The catapult has a limited range, it just doesn't seem like that because it can cover the world easily. About one hundred thousand kilometres, so enough to get you to anywhere on the planet and back again, but only about a third of the way to the Moon, for example.

"On the other hand, the wormhole has to connect two completely different universes, so _a slightly bigger deal._" Twoearle said in exaggeratedly casual tones. "So rather than the ship, which was moving between the dimensions, the hole will move the dimensions themselves closer to each other."

"Why don't the Elemerians build these?" Aika asked. "Instantaneous travel seems better than the ships."

"They probably do, just not out here in the boonies." Twoearle speculated. "We can't connect too many worlds with these, or we risk them colliding with each other. I bet they've got a network of connected worlds close to their home, but there's no point adding a one off harvest world like Earth or Catyu to it when they're just looking for a quickie."

Aika's eyebrows came together with concern. "So is there any risk of our universes colliding?"

"Yeah." Twoearle nodded. "A little, but not much. I mean I've never done this before."

"Wait." Isabella held up her hands now. "Are you saying this could destroy our universes?"

"Oh, no no! It definitely won't destroy both universes." Twoearle hurried to reassure her. She turned around and headed back into the pool house, where she pushed a button hidden under one shelf. The entire thing lifted away, revealing an elevator that the three girls stepped into.

"So what will happen if the universes collide?" Aika pressed.

"Look, there's a ninety nine percent chance that it won't happen, so don't worry about it." Twoearle waved her off.

"But what will happen if it does?" Aika was being really insistent. What was her problem?

With a sigh, Twoearle crossed her arms and tried to think of an explanation. "Does your dimension have a movie where a scientist constructs a teleporter that accidentally fuses him together with an insect?"

"I don't watch horror movies." Isabella turned her nose up. "They're gross."

"You mean like The Bee?" Aika smiled fondly. "I liked that one."

"Not that people who like them are gross or anything." Isabella immediately backpedaled.

Twoearle rolled her eyes and shrugged. "In my dimension it was 'The Beetle', but yeah. If this goes wrong, the result could be a lot like that."

"Are you saying there's a chance we could be fused together with an insect from the world we're going to?" Aika gave Twoearle a look of horror.

There was a ding as the elevator doors swung open.

"No." Twoearle rubbed the back of her head and stepped out into the hidden base's main room. "You two have the tailsuits, which will help keep your chromosomes in order. The risk is that will happen to every single other living thing in both our universes at the same time."

"Oh my god." Isabella paled.

"And not just being fused with insects, right? Like, blades of grass, and bacteria too. And they won't just be paired off, right?" Twoearle continued, approaching the control panel and beginning to work the dials and switches. "You could fuse two or a million creatures together, so like imagine a giant Bacteria composed of human proteins the size of the Amazon Basin, or something like that."

"Wait, wait, wait." Aika grabbed Twoearle's arms to stop her. "Are you saying there's a chance we could kill every living thing on Earth by turning this thing on?"

"Uh, no." Twoearle shook her head and gave Aika a disappointed look. "Weren't you paying attention? They'll only _wish_ they were dead."

"S-s-senpai." Isabella panicked and clung to Aika's sleeve. "We can't destroy the world for Twintails!"  
Twoearle scoffed. "The Elemerians do it all the time."

"What?!" Isabella looked horrified. "They do?!"

"Yeah?" Twoearle gave her a confused look. "What, do you think they do to any world they discover that doesn't naturally have twintails? They wipe it clean, plant a human population that will develop Twintail Elemera, and come back later."

"No way!" Isabella covered her mouth. "That's horrifying."

"Right?" Twoearle turned to Aika. "And look, what do you want to do? Go back to Earth in the spaceship? Another forty days in space? With me? Not to mention school starts again for you again soon. Are you gonna miss that?"

The look on Aika's face changed from disbelief, to hesitation, before she finally nodded and looked away. "You said it's ninety nine percent chance of everything going well?"

"Yeah, well, more like 98.8, but close enough." Twoearle quickly promised.

"Okay." Aika agreed reluctantly. "Alright, fine. We don't really have a choice anyway, do we?"

"Nope." Tears welled up in Twoearle's eyes, and she had to blink them away. "Now can you let go of my arms, please?"

"Hm?" Aika glanced down and realised Twoearle's hands had gone limp and colourless under their crushing restraint. "Oh, right."

Twoearle fell to her knees, her arms trembling. "Oh, thank goodness. Blood. Precious, precious blood." She looked like she was about to start sobbing. "I thought you'd never let go."

Isabella leaned in closer to Aika, and murmured quietly. "Is she gonna be okay?"

"Yeeaah." Aika rolled her eyes. "She's honestly fine. These days you could run her over with a truck and she'd probably just bounce back up."

The younger teen's eyes narrowed on Twoearle again. "Suspicious."

After sensation returned to Twoearle's fingers, but the pins and needles hadn't quite stopped, she stood up and faced the control panel again. "Geeze, what is your with crazy monkey grip? If I was anyone else my forearms would be _paste_."

"Twoearle." Aika growled.

"Alright, alright!" She blew air out through her nose, before she moved a hand across the control panel. "You're too sensitive." There was another moment of hesitation as her finger hovered over the button, before she steeled herself. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Then she pressed it.

* * *

In New York, on Earth, Rashid was driving his taxi back to the lot. A drunken man had thrown up inside the vehicle right at the very end of his shift. Although he had been through worse, and he was definitely a hard worker, he was due some reprieve from a taxing day. Just the thought of a home cooked meal and taking his boots off was almost as intoxicating as seeing as his wife. Mind you, his mother in law would still be there.

Glancing to his left, he blinked in surprise. For some reason the driver in the car next to him had a pair of cat ears. He'd heard of such things. It was foolish, but it was popular with a certain crowd, mostly asian teenagers and people who watched far too many cartoons. The strange thing was the man Rashid was looking at looked quite statesman-like, in a well pressed suit and driving a chrome black car that was very low to the ground.

The driver of the car looked just as confused by Rashid's appearance as Rashid did. The two of them stared at each other, failing for a moment to realise that the traffic light had changed from red to green.

After a long moment of eye contact, the other driver shook his head and accelerated across the intersection with a squeal of tires.

"I must be seeing things." Rashid rubbed his hand across his sweaty brow, but was brought up short by a strange sensation on his forehead. Looking down at his hands, he found what looked like scales rising through his skin. He was so shocked that he didn't even realise he was in pain until it started to feel like his lungs were turning inside out.

"ARGHHHH!" He screamed, throwing open the door and jumping out of his seat. "ARGGHG!" His voice changed tone, going deeper as he turned pale and gasped for air. Not air, water. He needed water for his gills or he'd suffocate! "Heeeelllllllpppp meeeeee!" He screamed out in watery tones, stumbling to the asphalt and looking about desperately. "Heeeeeeeeeelllpp!"

The only problem was everywhere he looked other people were undergoing similar transformations. In view, a young girl's toes had burst through her shoe, and had begun to merge with ground like plant roots, while her mother seemed to be melting into some kind of goop.

There was no one to help Rashid, and the fact that he wasn't going to die alone was of no comfort.

* * *

"The switch!" Twoearle shrieked, as her eyeballs started divide and change shape. "The blue and black switch! Pull it!" She could stay standing for any longer, as the bones in her legs turned rubbery and she drooped towards the floor. "Oh, god it's so horrible!"

Isabella had turned pale with horror, both hands covering her face as she tried to resist the urge to throw up.

Acting quickly, Aika jumped over her ally's thrashing, shrieking, mutating form and ran to the wall Twoearle had pointed at. In the middle of it was a glass panel, labeled with a sign that read 'BREAK ONLY IN EMERGENCIES!' Behind the glass was the switch Twoearle had indicated.

Without a second's hesitation, Aika smashed the panel, gripped the switch and pulled back.

"Hurk!" Twoearle reacted immediately, her form seeming to warp and blur, before separating into a strange monster version of herself and a normal human one. The monster version seemed to blur, before disappearing. Twoearle covered her mouth as gibbets of melted protein dripped down her chin and to the floor before also vanishing. After a few more moments she carefully climbed to her feet and held a closed fist in front of her mouth.

"Okay." She breathed out in relief, and burped loudly. "Yuck. Ugh. We're okay, we're okay."

"What was that?" Aika jerked her thumb at the switch. "Did our universes collide?"

"Yes, that's exactly what happened." Twoearle nodded slowly. "But it's okay, because I prepared a back up."

"How'd you fix it?" Aika asked, before she glanced over to Isabella, only to see the girl had slumped against a wall and fallen to the floor.

"This is so much more traumatic than I was prepared for." She murmured, hugging herself.

"Like I said, I prepared a back up. It's… too hard to explain." Twoearle shrugged. "It's kinda like restoring a computer, but it's also kind of like navigating at the same time. Just don't think about it too hard."

"So… we just turned everyone in the world about to turn into abominations, and then abruptly turned them back?"

Twoearle bit her lip, before nodding. "Y-yeah, basically."

* * *

"Mummy!" The little girl blubbered, standing up and running straight into the arms of her mother. "Muuuuuuuuuhhhummy!"

Rashid slowly climbed to his feet, looking at this hands and finding normal human skin. All around him, people were doing the same, relief washing over the faces as they realised they were human once more. What on Earth was that? A group hallucination?

Everywhere Rashid could see, people shared the same, bewildered, terrified, but grateful looks. After a moment of catching his breath, he hopped back in his taxi, and continued back to the lot, determined only to think of an end to his workday, and how great his feet would feel when he was finally able to take his boots off.

* * *

Shaking her head in disbelief, Isbella stared at her hands. "And I thought I was traumatised. Imagine trying to explain this to a child. Or my Dad."

"Glad you have your priorities straight." Twoearle sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Back to the drawing board, I guess. Have to find a way to pin the universes apart, while at the same time making them touch…"

"What about like, people driving cars? Or landing a plane?" Isabella looked back at Twoearle. "Wouldn't they all be dead? Five seconds isn't very long, but it's totally enough for something terrible to happen."

"Look, I'm sure they're all fine." Twoearle sighed.

"Or a doctor carrying out open heart surgery?" Isabella continued to babble. "How many people even live in your world? Did we just kill thousands?!"

"No, we didn't." Twoearle reassured her. "When I say I restored the back up, I mean everyone was returned to perfect health when they did. Even the ones hurt by other stuff." She breathed out under her breath. "That only affects creatures with Elemera though, so there might be a few inside out pigeons here and there, but otherwise nothing will have changed. It will be exactly like before."

"Are you sure?" Isabella asked, and Aika bent down to put a reassuring arm around her.

"Yes, I'm sure." Twoearle sighed. "Look, see?" She changed her console screen, and brought up news feeds from all across the world and in different languages. On all of them, people looked shell-shocked, but alive. Some of them were standing next to ruined vehicles, but on none of the screens were any reports of casualties.

After a moment, Isabella started to calm down. "Okay. Oh, thank god."

Aika's eyes narrowed on one screen. "...What's going on there?"

"Hm?" Twoearle maximised it so they could all watch.

On the monitor, what looked like a koala with a mouthful of sharp teeth had latched onto a news reporter from Catyu, and was ferociously drawing blood.

"Ah, damn." Twoearle cursed, and changed to a different screen where a similar thing was happening in a zoo in Brismane. Dozens of koala's had escaped captivity and were attacking everything in sight, humans and animals alike. "Okay, so it kinda looks like every koala on Catyu has been fused with piranhas from Earth. So it's not _exactly_ like it was before."

The three of them watched in silence for a while longer before Isabella shrugged. "Yeah, okay I can live with that."


	15. 15 The New Strategy

No one on Earth saw it when the portal from Catyu opened for a second time. To an outsider it would have looked a lot like one of the rings an Elemerian would normally use to steal someone's attributes, but it had obviously been modified with power cables coming out of it and had parts that had been welded open. Looking at the ring was a lot like looking at the surface of water, reflecting distorted light from the other universe.

A head of black hair broke the surface first, and Aika gracefully stepped out to land on her feet in front of the ring. She took a moment to examine herself to make sure she had all her limbs, or that her skin hadn't started to sprout vines, and found herself to be intact. _Looks like it's safe. _After that, she stood up and stepped away from the portal, took a blue handkerchief from her pocket and threw it in.

It was a few moments later when Twoearle emerged from the otherside, landing face first on the ground. "Ouch."

"This is Earth, right?" Aika looked around the room, though it was indistinguishable from the rest of their secret hideouts.

"Yeah, we're under Souji's house." Twoearle answered. "Though I think it's three in the morning, Japanse Standard Time."

There was a flutter of excitement in Aika's heart, and without waiting for a moment longer she threw open the door and stepped out into the hideout's main room.

"Isabella should be through in a moment." Twoearle called out to her retreating back as she climbed to her feet. "Wait a second-"

She was cut off as the elevator doors closed behind Aika, and the metal box thrummed with energy as it began to rise. It was a good few minutes before it reached the top of the shaft, the entire time Aika was excitedly bouncing from one foot to another. _Come on, come on, come on._

Finally the doors parted, and Aika rushed out into the Adolescenza cafe. She dashed up the stairs to the second floor, and came to Souji's room, only to draw short at the sound of light snoring on the inside. Of course she wanted to see him right away, but Twoearle had said it was three AM. Maybe it would be best to wait until morning…

"Aika?" A voice said over her shoulder. She spun to find Auntie Miharu rubbing her tired eyes, clad only in a night robe. "I thought you were in space?"

"I just got back."

"Weeee-" Miharu's jaw cracked with a wide yawn. "-elcome back."

"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

"That's okay, sweete. It just sounded a little bit like an elephant was rampaging up the stairs."

Blood warmed Aika's face and she looked away in embarrassment. "I'm sure it wasn't that loud."

"Oh, sweetie. It really was." Miharu patted Aika's cheek, before glancing past her at the door. "Somehow my son slept through that, but I doubt your parents did. Why don't you go say hi to them, and catch up with Souji in the morning?"

There was a long moment's pause, before Aika nodded. "Of course, I'm sorry, auntie Miharu."

"Good night, sweetie." She yawned once more and walked back into her room.

After once more looking to Souji's door with an expression somewhere between disappointment and longing, Aika turned and headed back down the elevator to help Twoearle unpack.

* * *

In his sleep addled state, Souji found it quite surprising when he stumbled upon a pink haired catgirl sitting at his breakfast table. That morning he came down the stairs with bleary eyes and bed head, wearing just a t-shirt and boxer shorts, only to be surprised by this strange visitor. Her hair was done up in a pair of magnificent twin drilltails that were so incredibly striking he was half convinced he was still dreaming. On the plate in front of her was a small stack of pancakes with sliced fruits and whipped cream. She looked quite young.

The catgirl recovered from her surprise far sooner, taking the spoon out of her mouth and neatly laying it on the table. "Good morning."

"G-good morning." He answered dummly, trying not to stare at her ears. "I'm sorry, I didn't think the cafe was opening today."

"I don't think it is." She shook her head. "But your mother let me in, and made breakfast for the three of us."

"The three of you?" Souji glanced around the empty room.

"Senpai just ran back over to her house to get her phone, and Twoearle is making coffee in the kitchen." She answered.

"Twoearle's back?!" Suddenly Souji felt very alert. He hurried into the kitchen to find the white haired mad scientist pouring spoonfuls of sugar into a cup of dark coffee. "Twoearle!" He smiled, and ran up to greet her.

"Look who's up!" She returned his joyful expression. "It feels like it's been forever."

"How are you? How was space? Are you okay?" He babbled questions happily. "Is Aika with you?"

"Okay, slow down." Twoearle gently pushed Souji away a step. "I'm happy to see you too, but I just need to ask why you're Sora again?"

Souji blinked in surprise, before looking down at himself, or apparently herself. "Oh, yeah. I figured out how to change at will."

Twoearle froze. "Really?"

Souji, or now Sora clapped her hands together excitedly. "Yeah-yeah. It turns out that the Tail Suits, or maybe our attributes, respond to the things we think we need, and so I just had to convince myself I needed to look good in Twintails, and then go to bed. By the time I woke up, I was a girl."

"That's fascinating." Twoearle examined her more closely, like she was looking for side effects. "And you can change back?"

"Yeah, I just need to convince myself I don't need to wear Twintails, go to sleep, and wake up a guy again."

"What we need, huh?" Twoearle looked down at her own hand and flexed her fingers. "Hmm…"

"Is Aika back?" Sora barreled on excitedly.

"Yeah, she's just next door." Twoearle replied and picked up her mug of coffee. "Why don't you put on some clothes before you go see her, though?"

Sora hesitated before nodding. "Right, yeah. Okay, that's a good idea."

As she passed back through the dining room, she quickly introduced herself to the catgirl. "Sorry I look like this. My name is Souji, but you can call me Sora right now. You're the new Tailsuit Warrior right?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm Isabella or Tailpink." She looked confused. "You're Tailred, right?"

"Yeah." Sora ran up the stairs and said over her shoulder. "I'm really sorry to be rude, but we can get to know each other after I get dressed, and catch up with Aika."

"O-okay." Isabella agreed, watching her retreating back. "Huh. Souji's a boy's name in Nyapon." She murmured to herself and shrugged. "Weird."

Sora quickly got dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, an admittedly boyish look. It was made a little more feminine by the time she took quickly run a brush through her hair and tie her hair up in a pair of red twintails. After that she climbed across the balcony that separated her room from Aika's, and knocked on the window excitedly.

It wasn't opened immediately, but Sora could hear the sound of movement from inside even through the drawn curtain. A moment later the window was thrown open, and Sora saw Aika for the first time in a month. They stared at each other for a moment, a look of confused surprise coming over Aika's expression, before it gave way to a smile.

"Souji." She murmured, and reached out to grab Sora by the shirt and pull her into a hug. "It feels like it's been so long."

"It's only been a month." Sora protested, but found her voice and eyes more watery than she expected.

"Why are you Sora?" Aika asked, though a giggle escaped her at the silliness of the question. "I'm gone for a month and you're suddenly a girl again."

"Oh, I figured out how to change as I want, but I can only do it overnight." Sora separated from the hug, and quickly wiped at her eyes. "How was the trip? Did it go well? I saw the catgirl down stairs."

"Yeah, it went well, but it was a close thing." Aika shook her head and breathed out. "We were that close-" She held her fingers a few centimetres apart. "-to the ship being destroyed. I'm being literal. The attack only cleared the cockpit by a nose, and if it had hit then we could well have been stranded on that island." She looked directly into Sora's eyes. "We probably never would have seen each other again."

Silence hung in the air as that took a moment to sink in. Just this month alone had proven surprisingly difficult in just to the day to day without Aika. "I didn't think it would be so dangerous." Thinking about her never coming back was almost too painful for Sora to handle rationally. "I didn't even really say goodbye. If I'd known you might never come back… I should have at least woken to see you off."

"No, you couldn't have known. I was treating it as casually as you were, and we literally almost ended up wiping out both our worlds! A day ago, when everyone on Earth had a mental break and dreamed of being into a monster? That wasn't a dream! That actually happened!" Aika fell down on her bed and put her head in her hands. "It was a side effect of bridging our worlds apparently, and the more we build the more dangerously unstable they get, the more likely that is to happen again."

"...Mum nearly turned into a pine cone?" Sora asked in disbelief. "I thought she just had a bad dream…"

"We can't do this again, Souji." Aika rubbed her eyes. "I mean it worked out this time, we did everything we set out to do but, we were this close to losing _everything_. Even putting aside the danger, we just barely arrived in time to save Tailpink."

"Really? What, you showed up mid fight?"

"No, we arrived _after_ her attributes had been harvested so we had to intercept an Elemerian ship mid flight! I had to smash my way in through the window! Think about it, Souji. If you had said goodbye to me that morning, and it had taken even two minutes longer we wouldn't have arrived in time. If Twoearle had decided to make a second cup of coffee, we wouldn't have arrived in time. If I had decided to have breakfast _before _we left, Isabella would have been taken away to god knows where by Ultimaguil."

Sora stood there, listening to Aika unload everything, nodding her head and frowning. "When you put it like that it sounds like we achieved everything we hoped for, and we can never do it again?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Aika breathed out and stood up again. "I'm really hungry. We can talk about this as a group, maybe come up with some other future plans. I'll introduce you to Isabella, she's already met auntie Miharu."

"I guess I'm just glad your safe." Sora told her as the two climbed out the window and across to Souji's room. "I really missed you."

"Me too." Aika sighed. "Ugh. Twoearle was right, space sucks. You won't even believe what she did to me…"

* * *

The holographic image of Catyu floated in the air above the analysts, as the Elemerians at its base sat huddled in its pale blue glow. Orchidmantisguildy watched from his throne, his claws tapping on the arm rest in frustration. No matter how much they tried to hide the fact, it was obvious to him that his underlings were merely trying to look busy. None of them had any idea what to do, and no amount of 'analysis' was going to change that. After days of debate and examination, they'd had no real idea as to how they'd claim this world for Ultimaguil.

"Have we considered launching an assault on the Nakatomi residence?" One of them, Dustmiteguildy, argued. "We can force Tailpink and her allies into a decisive confrontation, and crush them with superior numbers."

Orchidmantisguildy breathed out through his nose in frustration. It was the third time someone had proposed that plan.

Immediately a chorus of protesting voices rose up, several Elemerians all trying to speak over the top of eachother at once. The things that they were saying were all true of course. With their reserves of Ultiroids all but wiped out by Tailblue, they just didn't have the numbers they once did, so the numerical advantage wasn't as large as it had been, and even less likely to prove decisive. Not to mention the potentially fatal results of a failed assault, that could totally destroy Ultimeguil forces in this region.

For Orchidmantisguildy in particular, the bitterest pill to swallow was that he was the only one here who might be capable of defeating Tailblue in a fight, so it would fall to him to challenge her. Then he went and looked at the list of names of foes she'd defeated, and found the likes of Krakenguildy, Leviaguildy, Dragonguildy, and even a titan like Arachneguildy. Sure, many of those were a partial credit alongside her allies, Tailred and Tailyellow, but those were some incredible warriors. Even Dark Grasper has been beaten back and forced to retreat.

Orchidmantisguildy was not lacking in courage, but he wasn't suicidal, either. If he was going to find victory, he was going to have to find a solution far outside the usual Ultimaguil playbook. He tossed several notions back and forth in his mind, trying to fit them together in such a way that he would achieve his goals.

With a disaster like this under his belt, he would have to find some way of turning this around or there was no doubt as to his fate. It was fully possible that he would be demoted to an Ultiroid, if the Nurse Faction had their way. That was another source of frustration to him. There were far too many factions inside Ultimaguil. Things weren't so bad out here near the edges of the empire, but the feuding and infighting for influence closer to the core worlds was infamous for its intensity.

Whenever the organisation was set to reseed a planet, every faction would clamor to make sure their favoured attributes were included in the replacement human's genetic template. The Large Breast and Small Breast factions in particular were causing incredible trouble at the moment. They were two of the largest factions around, and both were currently leaderless thanks to the disaster on Earth.

_Ugh. Why don't the Tailsuit warriors have this problem?_ Orchidmantisguildy leaned forward and rubbed his eyes. Then he froze, an inkling of an idea forming in the back of his head. Sitting up in his throne, he stared at the map of the world, and saw the shapes of the continents and oceans, lines of mountain ranges and swirling clouds, but not much else other than the occasional grey patch of a city.

"You there." He pointed a finger at a particularly short Elemerian, and waved his hand at the globe. "Midgeguildy, why doesn't this map include Catyu's political borders?"

"Uh, w-well it was never relevant to our conquests." He explained. "The humans and their weapons are so weak that we only ever concerned ourselves with raising the Twintail attribute in a world before we harvested it."

That made sense, but it wasn't helpful to Orchidmantisguildy. He sat back in his chair, steepling his fingers and couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his mandibles. "Do we have any more Tailsuits in reserve?"

"Y-yes sir. We were prepared for the possibility that the pink suit would be destroyed or damaged, so we have a back up suit prepared."

"What colour is it?"

"Er, I believe it's uncoloured right now, but we can change it as needed."

"Perfect. Bring me that suit, and analysts, find out everything you can about Catyu's current political situation, and begin constructing a portal to Earth. If the Tailsuit warriors are going to move the worlds into proximity, then we must consider this a two front war!" He splayed his hand out grandly and rose to his feet. "My genius knows no bounds! I will go down in Ultimaguil history as one of its greatest conquerors and warriors! I will bring an end to this pathetic resistance long before reinforcements arrive from the core worlds!"

_And long before my replacement too._

* * *

Eun Ae was distinctly aware that to any outsider the scene she found herself in would be as disturbing as it was ridiculous. She was on her knees, clad in Japanese style highschool girl's uniform, with the shirt rolled up to the bra, exposing her navel and smooth abdomen. That was a little kinky maybe, but nothing too crazy. Well what if she had her hands tied behind her back? Was that a little weirder?

Okay, that would probably be a little much for some people's tastes, but it was at least comprehensible. Even with her hair done up in a pair of long twintails that stretched down past her shoulders, it was the sort of thing you might expect to see in a low quality porno. The first real hint that things were majorly wrong was the pair of steely eyed, armed guards standing just outside the door clad in ceremonial uniforms. Normally you would expect privacy for a soon to be intimate scene like this, but the Supreme Leader was far too paranoid to be separated from his bodyguards even for more intimate pleasures.

Despite their intense gaze and the mild embarrassment she felt, Eun Ae was smart enough to not complain. She got three hot meals a day, which was a lot more than most could say in their country. They even told her that her parents were being taken care of, though she doubted it. At the very least they weren't forced into labor camps. For these reasons, Eun Ae would absolutely never voice a word of complaint.

Instead, she voiced her line. In the most exaggeratedly helpless tone she could manage, she cried. "Oh no, an alien!" She could even fake tears quite well. A little longer doing this and she might become quite a skilled actor.

Through the door, between the two armed guards stepped another woman wearing a giant lizard costume. "Har, har, har!" She smacked a large piece of phallus shaped rubber against one hand. "I'm here to steal your twintails!"

Okay, that was weird. Eun Ae was distinctly aware that this scene was already bizarre beyond most people's tolerances, but she knew in a few moment's it was about to get a lot stranger. "Oh, nooooo!" She cried, and swooned. "Won't soooomeooone pleeeease saaaave me~?"

"Don't worry, little girl!" A man's voice replied. "Tailred is here to protect the Twintails of the People's Republic of North Korea!"

Through the door stepped a man of below average height, who was noticably obese. Far from his usual formal attire for public appearances, he was wearing a red and black leotard, with space cut out to expose his pale, flabby midriff. Atop his head, rather than his usual black military style crew cut, and in flagrant and hypocritical defiance of his own country's thirty legal hairstyles, was a red wig with a long pair of Twintails the stretched nearly to his knees.

It was an enormous credit to Eun Ae's self control that she didn't flinch, snicker, or grimace with disgust at the sight. Instead she smiled through watery eyes and said, "Oh, thank you, Tailred! You're so beautiful, cute, and empowered!"

Yes, Eune Ae knew just what this would look like to any outsider, but no one outside this room would ever know. She wasn't the Supreme Leader's first twintail girl, after all. The last one had gossiped about the Supreme Leader's love, and was now buried somewhere along with everyone she'd gossiped to. So Eun Ae would keep her mouth shut, enjoy her three hot meals a day, and go along with every single one of 'Tailred's' demands.

"Twintail POWER!" The Supreme Leader of the People's Republic of North Korea shouted, thrusting one fist forward and cocking his sizable hip. "Feel the strength of my sword!" One of the guards handed him a long katana. "I am the cutest!"

**AN: Thus ends the Catyu Arc. Thus begins the North Korea arc.**


	16. 16 Conference Fall

Souji puffed his chest out proudly. "And now, for the first time in forty six days, I'm proud to announce that the Twintail Club is back in session!"

"Yeah!" Erina cheered, then noticed she was alone in doing so, blushed furiously and sat down again.

The clubroom hadn't changed at all in their absence. It had been little more than a month, and the school had janitors, so it wasn't like the place had gotten dusty. The school was still open for the Summer, if only so that club members could keep up with their practice. Even if they didn't have any official activities, it was a full fledged student club in the school's eyes, so they were allowed to use it even during the holidays. Currently all its members and its supervising teacher were present, along with one visitor from another school. They were all seated around the table in chairs, except for Souji who stood in front of the white board.

"Anyway, it's with great joy that I welcome back our wayward members, Twoearle and Aika." He clapped for the two of them, and after a moment Erina awkwardly joined him. After letting the applause quiet down, he continued. "Not only are they back, but they've brought with them a new member! With that, I'd like to extend my sincere pleasure that we'll be joined by Isabella, a Tailsuit Warrior from planet Catyu!" Again he clapped, this time joined by Aika and Twoearle as well.

Isabella frowned and folded her arms at the sudden attention. "What kind of school allows a Twintail club, anyway?"

A guilty looking expression came over Erina's face, and she looked away.

_Didn't Aika tell me she was shy?_ Souji sighed internally. "At any rate, a lot has changed since our last meeting, and so to talk about what's happened and our next step, I cede the floor to Twoearle."

"Yeah, before that. Do we really have to pretend this is a real club?" Twoearle raised her hand.

"Then how did you get a clubroom?" Isabella cut in.

"Look, it doesn't really matter." Souji tried to play peacemaker. "Besides, we have club activities."

"Sorry, but I don't think fighting Elemerians counts towards credit." Aika pointed out.

"Oh, really?" Souji frowned, before looking to Erina. "Is there anyway it could?"

"Uh, I don't think so, not without revealing our secret identities." Erina apologised.

"Uh, who is this anyway?" Isabella raised her hand and looked at Erina.

Aika quickly introduced her. "This is Erina Tsube, or Tailyellow."

"Oh, cool." Isabella smiled at her. "I'm glad there's someone else here who's my age."

The room went silent.  
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Isabella looked at the various expressions on the other club member's faces. "Also, what happened to Souji?"

"...He's standing right there?" Aika pointed out.  
A confused expression came over Isabella's face as she looked at him before a look of realisation over her. "Oh, okay. So Souji is a family name, and Sora is your sister then? Where is she?"

"Oh, she's so naive!" Twoearle started giggling and clapping her hands. "We're gonna mess her up so good!"

After a moment of knuckling his forehead, Souji shrugged. "Alright, so we were going to cover that as part of the third item on the agenda, but I guess we'll go over that now, and we can talk about our future plans a bit after?" He glanced to Twoearle to double check that was okay, and when she nodded he continued. "So, it turns out Tailsuits have some pretty serious side effects."

"What kind of side effects?" A new voice joined the conversation, a dangerous note to her tone that bellied her maid outfit.

"Woah!" Isabella jumped to her feet with shock. "How long has she been standing there?"

"That's Mikoto, she's Erina's maid." Aika answered quickly. "She's been standing there the entire time, and no you're not going crazy. Unless you've trained to detect people's presence, you definitely won't be able to find her if she doesn't want you to find her."

"Like a ninja maid?" Isabella sat down.

"Yes, like a ninja maid." Aika sighed. "I know, just bear with it."

"I'm the alien here, and this is so weird." Isabella grumbled.

"What kind of side effects?" Mikoto interrupted firmly. "It it a threat to milady's health?"

"Uh, no." Souji frowned. "They seem to vary from individual to individual, but in Erina's case it just manifests as a loss in self control when she transforms into Tailyellow."

"Isn't that really dangerous?" Isabella pointed out. "What if she does that in a fight?"

"Yeah, it's a problem." Souji agreed. "In addition to which, Aika now has super strength."

Erina raised a small hand. "Didn't she already have that?"

"She did." Twoearle banged her head on the desk. "But it got worse."

"I think you mean better?" Erina corrected, sounding apologetic.

"I meant _exactly_ what I said."

Souji continued. "Twoearle is now almost invulnerable, though she does feel pain."

"How invulnerable is 'almost invulnerable'?" Isabella glared at her suspiciously.

"We've stress tested." Aika answered as Twoerle winced at the memory. "And the answer is I still can't break her bones."

"I bet that's because she's an Elemerian and she doesn't have them." Isabella glared across the table.

Before anyone could make any further accusations of anyone else being a secret alien, Souji continued. "Finally, my side effect changed me into a girl for a while, whom you met the other day. Sora is my alter ego, I guess."

"Wait." Isabella's eyebrows came together. "What?"

"That girl you met the other day? That was me." Souji repeated. "I didn't mean to trick you like that, I just forgot to explain at the time."

The expression that came over her face was one of disbelief, followed by disgust. "Wait. Is my suit gonna turn me into a guy?!"

"Maybe." Twoearle smirked from across the room until Aika kicked her shin under the table. "Argh!" She stood up, and bent over to clutch her limb. "Okay, okay! Probably not, but it seems pretty likely that you will experience _some_ kind of side effect."

"Like what?" Isabella looked like she was nearing panic. "Because some of those sound a lot better than others!"

"I don't know." Twoearle stood back up, still grimacing from the pain. "It could be something related to your insecurities, or maybe it's something related to what you think you need? I'm not sure yet, I haven't had the chance to really do some testing."

"So, yeah." Souji shrugged. "That's another thing to consider if you're having second thoughts about joining us."  
"Actually quitting now probably won't help you." Twoearle added. "I only used my Tailsuit for about a month, and I still ended up like this."

"Oh no." Isabella ran her hands through her hair and sat down. "I like being a girl." She looked up at Souji. "Is there a cure?"

"I was about to get to that." He glanced towards Erina, before looking towards the rest of the group. "It's actually good news for everyone. When I managed to reverse the transformation for the first time, I actually think I might have mastered the change entirely."

Twoearle sat back in her chair looking interested. "Really?"

"Yeah. All I need to do to change is to convince myself I need to look good in Twintails before I go to sleep, and when I wake up I'm Sora. Then, when I go to sleep as Sora, I just need to convince myself that I don't need to wear Twintails to admire them, I woke up as Souji again. I'm guessing if you guys work at it, you'll be able to figure out how to turn off your invulnerability and super strength."

"Why would I want to?" Aika frowned.

"I'm never turning this off." Twoearle shook her head rapidly and shuddered. "I can never be safe as long as this flat chested gorilla is here-."

"Twoearle." Souji tried to warn as he noticed Aika's brows come together angrily.

"-or at least until she grows her chest out, which, let's be real, will only happen when she pays for the silicon."

"Twoearle!" Souji yelled.

"Honestly, invulnerability is completely necessary for me at this point." Twoearle shook her head in disbelief. "Even if she wasn't being enhanced by her attributes, she already had gorilla strength. It's clear she'll be a threat to me she just learns to accept she'll never have the assets I do."

There was a loud scraping sound as Aika stood up, followed by Twoearle screaming and trying to crawl away. The next few minutes of the meeting devolved into the other members of the club plus Mikoto desperately trying to pry the mad scientist from Aika's grip before ultimately failing, and watching helplessly as Twoearle passed out.

"Aika." Souji groaned with disappointment as they waited for Twoearle to wake up.

"I'm not sorry, and I will not apologise until she does first."

Isabella, who had just witnessed a person get violently choked into unconsciousness sat there looking shell-shocked. "Is… Senpai usually like this?" She murmured to Erina.

Erina bit her lip before answering diplomatically. "They're both nice people, they just don't get along with each other very well."

It took a few minutes for Twoearle to wake up and for the meeting to continue.

"Moving on." Souji sighed, scratching the back of his head. "School is going to resume this Monday, which means we're not going to be able to carry out another operation like this for a while. Until then, I think we should focus on shoring up our defences on Earth, and on Catyu."

"Ah, there's a problem on that front." Twoearle put up her hand. "I'm out of stuff."

"Stuff?" Souji frowned. "Like what?"

"Ah, well the bases are made of stuff like, titanium, carbon nanotubes, circuit boards, big screens, and even vanilla ol' steel. You get the idea." Twoearle shrugged. "All that was stuff I brought with me when I left my homeworld, but we've used up pretty much all the stuff I had in storage, and now I can't build anything until I get more. We also need more Twintail Elemera if I'm going to build more Tailsuits, which really isn't that easy to come by."

Silence filled the room as the other club members realised the implications of what she was saying.

"How much money are we talking about here?" Aika crossed her arms. "Forgetting about the Twintail attribute for the moment, just the materials to build the secret bases is going to be _a lot_."

"Millions." Erina agreed.

"I can cover that." Isabella put up her head. "I'll just have to talk to daddy about it first."

Twoearle shook her head. "I'm sure he can afford it, but somehow I doubt he's going to be willing to pay for the costs of several different worlds, without seeing a return on his investment at some point. Besides, I don't want the Tailsuit Warriors to be beholden to the interests of a corporation, I have another idea."

She reached into her pocket and took out a small metal disk, with a power cord running out of it. "Someone plug that in." She ordered as she unlooped the cord. After the device was set up, she turned it on and a projected image of Earth appeared as a hologram above the device. "Okay, so this is where we are, way out in the boonies of Ultimaguil's interdimensional empire." The image changed to what looked more like a three dimensional graph and a line chart. "It's a little hard to follow if you're not trained, but basically this is us." One of the lines was highlighted red. "This is Catyu." A line running parallel with it flashed pink. "Right now they're right next to each other, but normally they're like this." The two lines in the image separated, but remained within a few centimetres. "I don't have any data of the Ultimaguil core worlds, but as near as I can tell their homeworld isn't even on this map. For them to get anything to or from their homeworld is a three year journey. So to make up for that they have worlds in different, uh, guess we'll call them 'regions', that they organise things from. The regional capital for this range of dimensions is here."

One of the blue lines turned black.

"How far is that?" Aika asked, frowning.

"It's not a matter of distance, because we're not traveling through space." Twoearle corrected her. "But answering the question I think you're asking is it would take us about four months to get there."

"There's no way we can go there, then." Souji pointed out. "Not until we graduate at least."

"We can talk about that later." Twoearle demurred. She pressed another button, and one of the lines was highlighted with a white outline. "This is my homeworld. We called it Local, which is kind of a silly name, but so's 'Earth' anyway. It's about sixty nine days away, so it's actually pretty close."

"Twoearle." Erina breathed out, worry etched on her face.

"I'm fine." Twoearle smiled with brittle cheer. "Anyway, my world had a population of about eleven billion last time I was there, so that's a lot of Elemera for Ultimaguil to harvest. In the year that I've been here on Earth, they wouldn't have had time to arrange for a large barge to get there yet, so for the moment all that Elemera is just sitting around in stockpiles, waiting to be transported. In addition to that, all the resources of my homeworld will be there too, like gold, silicon, etc etc. All the stuff we need. And because _no one's-" _Twoearle's breath hitched, and she had to swallow to clear her throat. "Sorry, just a moment." After coughing and clapping her hands against her cheeks, she continued. "Like I was saying. It's an entire world's worth of Elemera and free stuff. Everything we could need to build more tailsuits, spaceships, and secret bases on countless worlds for years to come."

The room was silent.

"Anyway, that's my presentation." She quickly turned off the holographic projector. "I think that's the best choice for our next target. I'm just gonna sit down, and let you guys think about it."

"Twoearle-" Souji began.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hog up everyone's time." Twoearle smiled at the rest of the table. "I know sixty nine days is a lot, and if we're going to do this I think I want all four of our fighters to be available for it. So that's it, just take your time to think about it."

It was obvious to everyone that Twoearle wasn't ready to talk about this at the moment, and it was understandable. It was only as he was sitting there, that Souji realised he'd never talked to Twoearle about her family, her home life, or even her lifestyle outside of being a Tailsuit Warrior. She probably hadn't wanted to talk about it, given how fresh the wounds of losing her entire world must be. Thinking about it, he realised that it couldn't have even been two years since she first started fighting as Tailblue of Local. A year fighting together here on Earth, a sixty nine day journey from her homeworld, and the month she spent battling the Elemerians before Dragonguildy ambushed her.

He glanced over at Aika, who was sitting with her arms crossed and a worried expression on her face. Their eyes met, and Souji knew they were both thinking the same thing.

Aika's gaze flickered to Twoearle than back to Souji. _Someone needs to talk to her._

_Agreed._ Souji nodded and subtly extended four fingers on his hand, before jerking a thumb at his chest. _Come over to my place at four._

Aika nodded.

"Is there anything else we need to talk about at this meeting of the Twintail Club, or is it time to go home?" Souji stood up and asked the group. "I think that covers just about everything."

"Ah, actually." Aika put up her hand. "I'm worried I might accidentally kill some of the black belts at Grandpa's doujo, so I was wondering if someone here would help me by being my new sparring partner?"

There was a moment's pause, before Twoearle screamed, scrambled over the desk and dived through the window. Everyone stared in shock as the pieces of shattered glass fell to the ground and the mad scientist sprinted into the distance, repeating again and again. "No-no-no-no-no!"

Silence reigned for a moment, before Mikoto asked Aika in disbelief, "What exactly did you do to her in space?"

In response, she could only look guilty and rub the back of her head.

"Damn it, Aika." Souji groaned.

"A-anyway." Aika looked to the rest of the room. "I still need a sparring partner, someone in a Tailsuit who won't be harmed too badly would be preferable."

"I can do it." Isabella put up her hand. "You can even use my private gym."

"Alright, with that settled I guess that's the meeting over." Souji glanced at the broken window and sighed. "Mikoto can you fix that, please?"


	17. 17 Strategy

It was interesting just how much easier Aika's second trip to Catyu was then the first. It took her a few minutes to grab her gym bag and change into her karate gi, then she rode the elevator from the Mitsuka residence down to the secret base. From there she simply stepped through the gate and it was done.

That was it. No month in space, no fights with Twoearle over the main screen, and no hours of stocking up on supplies. It took maybe five minutes. The most complicated part of the trip was remembering to turn on her Catyu disguise before she left the pool house.

"Senpai!" Isabella waved at her as she approached, jogging over. She was wearing yoga pants and a tank top which revealed the lines of her body pretty clearly. It was an appropriate outfit for exercising, but Aika couldn't help the bitter tinge of frustration as she noticed that even a girl two years younger than herself had hips and breasts that put her own to shame.

"Good afternoon." Aika smiled, eyew twitching slightly.

"Is something wrong?" Isabella asked innocently, tilting her head to one side.

"Nothing that you can help." Aika forced a fond tone past her lips and gave the girl an affectionate pat on the shoulder. "Let's see what you can do."

It turned out to be not that much. Isabella was hardly a big exerciser, her body weight mostly kept in check by her small appetite. She didn't complain, though, Aika was pleased to note as she ran the younger teen through a mixed set of resistance, aerobics, and calisthenics, and she proved herself to be naturally flexible too.

"Had enough?" Aika asked the red faced young teen a little more than an hour later.

Wordlessly she nodded, huffing out loudly as she lay on a bench.

"That routine I just ran you through would definitely be enough to help your general level of fitness, which is always a good thing, but when you transform the tailsuit does all the work anyway. It won't help you much in a fight."

Again Isabella nodded.

"If you'd like I can teach you karate, which should be good for fitness and for tailsuit work." Aika offered. "It's never too late to start, but it will take you a while before you start to see real results. It's also a bit more of a time commitment than just regular exercise, though."

Isabella's eyes opened and she looked up at Aika. "Y-you'll be teaching me, senpai?"

"Yeah, I definitely can, but if that's a problem I'm sure my grandfather could-"

"N-no! That's fine." She sat up, breaking eye contact. "I look forward to working with you, Senpai."

"Great." Aika smiled brightly, and reached down to help pull the girl to her feet. "We'll take a break so you can get some protein, then you can help me with my what I want to do."

Isabella asked, "What do you want to do, Senpai?"

* * *

There was an instinctive flutter of fear in Tailpink's stomach, as she stared at the ridiculous set of weights in front of her. After making sure she ate, her senpai gathered up almost all of the weights in the gym and placed them onto a single bar. It was now creaking and groaning noisily in the rack, bending slightly in the middle as the absurd amount of metal on either side it was almost too much for it.

"Okay, you ready?" Aika asked, breathing out and stepping under the bar. "You're my spotter, so if it looks like I'm about to hurt myself I need you to step in."

"How much is that?" Tailpink asked, and stepped closer to her senpai.

"Five hundred kilos, or just about the world record on Earth." She answered, readying herself. "I didn't want to risk doing this without someone in a tailsuit nearby."

Tailpink shook her head in disbelief. "I can see why!"

"Three, two, and one. Go." Aika stood up to her full height, resting the weight on her shoulders. "Oof." She grunted, taking a careful step back away from the rack.

"Are you okay?" Tailpink worried, putting her hands under the bar, but not taking any weight..

"Yeah, but it's definitely heavy." Aika slowly crouched, before standing up again. "One. Two." She repeated the motion another nine times, before struggling on the eleventh. "T-take the bar."

With Tailpink's help she was able to return the bar to the rack, and Aika breathed out in relief. "Wow. This is getting crazy."

"Um, I'm not sure I understand, Senpai." Isabella admitted, as she transformed out of her tailsuit. "I mean, the world record is impressive, but a person can do it."

"A guy who was about a foot taller than me and easily four times my body weight was able to do that once after weeks of preparation, and then he needed to lie down for a while." Aika shook her head. "And I feel like I could complete a full set at that weight, and go on to complete the rest of my leg day just fine anyway. Trust me, it's barely comparable."

"Oh…"

"I feel like I'm cheating." Aika confessed with a sigh, looking slightly forlorn. "Squats like that aren't really something I even focus on for my routine. It's not that I don't do resistance training like this, but I practice karate, you know? I wonder how much force is in my punches these days." She scratched the back of her head turning her gaze to the floor. "How am I gonna explain this to Grandpa?"

"I still don't think I understand." Isabella admitted, unsure of what to do about her senpai's frustration. "But I think he'll be happier about this than if you turned into a boy?"

That got a surprised chuckle out of Aika. "You're right, I should probably just count my blessings."

"I didn't mean it like that." Isabella pouted. "I mean, if you two are close, then won't he just be happy that you're really good at what you love doing?"

"When you put it like that, he might." Aika agreed after a moment's hesitation. "I just don't want to worry him."

"Maybe he should be worried?" Isabella looked away. "If Orchidmantisguildy had managed to take me away on his ship, my parents would probably never have learned what happened to me. I'd just have disappeared, and they'd never know why. Maybe by trying to protect your grandfather and your parents from what you're doing, you're just making things worse?" She shrugged. "When I told Daddy about what was happening, it was the first time we'd really talked in years."

"..."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to try to lecture you, Senpai." Isabella apologised when the silence stretched on and she felt self conscious heat rise in her cheeks. "That was arrogant of m-" She shut her mouth with an eep, when she felt a hand touch the top of her head and gently ruffle her hair.

"You're a lot smarter than you seem, sometimes." Aika stood up and threw the towel over her shoulder. "Anyway, that's enough of that. Let's see how my karate looks in normal gravity..."

* * *

Souji spent the afternoon browsing Twintail accessories on his computer. Not for himself, but for Sora. There were so many kinds of Twintails to try, and now he wasn't forced to be a girl he could really relax and take his time to enjoy them. He was just contemplating getting a part time job to pay for designer brand shampoo and conditioner when Aika climbed through his window.

"Oh, what time is it?" He glanced at the corner of his screen. "Four already."

"Where's Twoearle?' Aika asked.

"Ah, I think she's in her lab." Souji turned his monitor off and stood up. "She went in there after the meeting and I haven't seen her since."

"Yeah, that might be my fault." Aika admitted.

"You think?" Souji gave her his best sarcastic look. "You seriously need to stop hitting her."

"She keeps provoking me!" Aika protested.

"Oh, come on, don't be childish. You know you can't just hit everyone who makes you angry, especially with how you are now."

She didn't answer, just looking away and pouting. "She started it."

"It doesn't matter!" Souji reached out and grabbed her arm, turning her so she was looking at him. "What if I accidentally set you off? You're not above giving me a hard elbow, only now you'll rupture my kidney or something."

"I know!" Aika yanked her hand out of his grip. "But I'm not the only one to blame here."

"I know that, too." Souji stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. "I get it, alright? At this point she has to know what's coming every time, and she keeps digging at you anyway. But one of you has to stop."

"So why does it have to be me?"

"Because I know I can trust you."

She blinked, and stared back at him.

"I talked to you first because I know you can control yourself better than she can." Souji dimly realised that he was probably gripping her shoulders a little too tightly for most people to be comfortable with, but Aika hadn't reacted at all. _They feel like rocks._ Letting go, he took a step back and stretched out his oddly sore fingers. "Look, Twoerle is insane, and you know it. She literally sucked half the things she loved out of her own brain just so she could use it to fight the Elemerians. If we're going to stop this, I can't count on her like I can count on you."

He watched as Aika took a long moment to think before she answered with a nod, her voice small. "You're right."

"Okay, good." Souji breathed out in relief. "Do you promise not to hit anyone anymore?"

"...Yeah. Tsk." She clicked her tongue. "Somehow this feels like she's won."

_What were you even in competition over?_ Souji asked himself. If it was breast size then he some bad news for Aika. "Speaking of Twoearle, what do you think of her plan?"

"...Sixty nine days is a lot." She bit her lip. "The distances we're working with are starting to get really big, Souji."

"Yeah." He scratched the back of his head and sat down. "How are we going to complete school if we need to keep pushing out into space like this?"

"I've actually been thinking about this. Firstly, we don't actually have to make the trip ourselves. If we're willing, we could find people to make the trip for us, and Twoearle can teach them how to make a portal on the other side. Isabella has money, she can hire people."

That might not actually be a bad idea, or at least it initially sounded okay to Souji. "That would be such a weird job interview. Twoearle did say there was a limit how many gates we can build, but it could work."

"Yeah." Aika agreed. "But what really worries me is that we're actually incredibly powerful. If we're bringing more and more people on board, the risk of some of our basic stuff being sold or stolen gets really high. Like the space jump catapult! We treat it like it's no big deal, but if what if it ends up the hands of terrorists or criminals? This stuff is incredibly valuable."

"You got a point." Souji grimaced. "Any other ideas?"

"...Yeah." She crossed her arms. "And I don't like it, but it does solve all our problems."

"What is it?"

"We just give up on finishing high school." It was said with a look of obvious reluctance.

"Woah, Aika… When did you become a delinquent?"

She rolled her eyes, before elaborating. "Look, maybe we've just got our priorities wrong? The Elemerians are out there, and they're doing horrible things to countless people, and we're sitting here thinking about fitting travel time in between our homework and attendance?"

"...I see what you're getting at." He breathed out. "Man, this is a lot."

"It is." She agreed.

"But what about our futures?" He looked to her. "If we're not even high school graduates we're basically just going to be stuck in our parent's basements our entire lives."

"Yeah, I thought about that too." Aika agreed. "And that's a risk, but listen. I'm going to inherit Grandpa's Doujo, you can take over your mother's cafe, Isabella's dad's a literal billionaire so she'll be fine, and Erina's going to be the next head of her family, anyway." She shrugged. "We might actually just be okay even without graduating."

It was a solid argument, but somehow Souji still didn't like it. "Come on, Aika. That still sounds terrible."

"...Yeah it does." She admitted. "I just don't know, it's an idea."

"What do you want to do?" He asked after a moment's silence.

"...Whatever you choose, you can trust me to be there."

"We're in this together." Souji agreed. "Maybe we can talk to Twoearle, see if she can come up with some-"

Their communicators went off at the same time, and they both lurched in surprise.

"Everyone, meet me in the secret base." Twoearle's voice came over the device. "The Elemerians are attacking Catyu."

They both rushed to the elevator together, waiting for the frustrating few minutes until the doors opened and they rushed into the catapult room. Twoearle was waiting there for the pair.

"What's going on?" Souji asked.

"I don't know yet, I haven't been through." Twoearle led the three of them to the portal.

"Aren't you monitoring what's happening?" Souji asked.

She shook her head, and bent over to pick up what looked like a small metal sphere with white circuitry on its outside. "I can't send a signal through the gate. Instead we have to shoot a little communication ball through to relay messages for us." Set up in front of the portal was a device that looked like a pitching machine from a baseball range, but was filled with other communication balls. "I've set these up on both sides, now go! I'll wait here for Erina."

"Got it." Souji answered, and he and Aika quickly jumped through the gate. It felt almost like passing through water, or maybe something a little thicker than that, like mud or slime. When they emerged on the other side less than a second later Souji felt noticeably colder.

The secret base on Catyu looked almost like a carbon copy of the one on Earth, at least to Souji's eyes. The only difference he could spot was the word 'Catyu' sprayed on the floor in white paint at the base of the teleporter. He supposed it was probably there to stop people from getting confused about which side they were on.

"Where's Isabella?" Souji asked as they emerged into the main room.

"Her family's mansion is huge." Aika transformed into Tailblue. "We probably just got here before she did, she's probably in the elevator now."

"Do you want to wait for her?" He looked at her.

"One of us should." There was a pause as she thought about it for a second. "You're the strongest, you go ahead." She held her up arm to show her communicator. "We have these. If you're in trouble just call."

That seemed reasonable to Souji. Even if it was a trap of some kind, he doubted the Elemerians on Catyu could defeat all four tail warriors together, and he could probably survive until the others arrived just fine by himself. He nodded and sent out the command to transform.

Tailred stepped into the Spacejump Catapult and she disappeared only to reappear in a flash of glowing particles. Instantly, she reappeared on a grassy hillside in the dead of night. A little red flag started waving in her head as she looked around and found no signs of people anywhere.

"Oh, no you really came." A trembling Elemerian gasped, backing away a step. He was particularly ugly, with both an insectile mouth and exoskeleton, but with warts that had long black hairs growing out of them in places. "Oh, dear… Oh-dear-oh-dear."

"This is a trap, isn't it?" Tailred immediately accused him, looking around nervously for the swarm of Ultiroids. "There's no Twintails out here!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" The Elemerians turned around and crouched low. Like a coiled spring he then jumped, launching himself into the air like a rocket, flying straight up and away in a massive arc.

"He just ran away!" Tailred barked into her communicator.

"That sounds a lot like an ambush to me." Tailblue's voice came from the other side. "I just got a text from Isabella. She says she slept through the communicator alarm; apparently it's just after midnight on this side of the portal."

Judging by the moon hanging in the night sky that seemed reasonable to Tailred. "I think I'll chase him, even if it is a trap. You guys can back me up easily enough anyway."

"Your call." Tailblue said.

Taking a running jump, Tailred flew over the hills in front of her, and at the height of her arc she looked about for the fleeing Elemerian. It wasn't easy to see in the dark, but at the base of what looked like a chain-linked fence Tailred spotted a brownish mass that leapt up and over the barrier. Her next jumped didn't quite clear the fence like she hoped it would, and her ankles caught the top of it. Clumsily, Tailred smacked face first into the dirt, and when she rolled over to check for injury she saw that she'd uprooted the whole construct and dragged it the ground with her. In fact, her ankles were caught in the barbed wire, though it hadn't done any damage thanks to the Tailsuit's resistance.

"Damn it!" She cursed, pulling herself free with a screech of bending metal. Quickly scrambling to her feet, she resumed her pursuit of the alien. As she peered ahead through the dark, she could just barely see the shape of the alien leaping away through the night sky. He was only just visible at the height of each jump.

Visible on the horizon was a lot of light pollution, hiding the night sky and making it appeared almost blue. Up ahead was some kind of outdoor park or ballgame or something, or at least that was Tailred's guess if all the lights were anything to go by. There were vehicles lined up in countless rows in front of it too, which made her suspect it was some kind of sporting event. As she watched, the brown mass of the alien disappeared into the stadium, or whatever it was. He didn't jump out of it.

"He's attacking some people!" Tailred called into her communicator as she jumped a final time and landed on her feet in the middle of the arena.

For a moment she was blinded by the sudden change of lighting, and she protected her eyes with the shadow of her hand. As she looked around, she saw lots of men in uniform, but not as part of a sports team.

"Intruder!" One of them shouted and pointed a gun at her.

Those were military uniforms... These were soldiers! Tailred realised with a jolt. "W-w-wait a second!"

All around her was the rattle of bullets being loaded in chambers, as hundreds of guns were pointed at her simultaneously.

Instantly she puts her hands up. "Hold on, hold on! I'm just here for the alien!" As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw the silhouette of the Elemerian crouched lightly atop a tall set of floodlights, watching the events transpire. "See, that one right there!" Tailred pointed at it.

None of the soldiers looked where she directed, and an officer stepped forward to shout at her through a microphone. "Surrender, little girl!"  
Maybe it was time to call for backup? Tailred didn't want to have to hurt anyone. "Tailblue, where exactly am I right now?"

"Uh, I don't know, give me a second." Came her unsure answer. There was a moment's pause "According to the map this place is called 'The People's Republic of North Nekorea'."

**AN: Dun Dun Dun!**

**Neko is Japanese for cat. More cat puns. Did I ever mention that's my favourite part of Catyu? My favourite one so far has been when Isabella said, "I'm not even Catolic." As in cat. Catholic. Geddit?**


	18. 18 Never Changes

The words passed through Tailred's mind, and it took her a moment to put together their meaning. "'Nekorea?'" She asked, half disbelieving. "Is there a South Nekorea?'

"Yeah, that's what it says." Tailblue replied. "North Nekorea."

As she looked around at the soldiers with armed rifles, a nervous worry simmered in Tailred's gut. This place wouldn't happen to bear any resemblance to North Korea from their world, would it? "Uh, Tailblue... People are pointing guns at me."

"Surrender!" The officer screamed through his megaphone.

"Do _not_ surrender." Tailblue warned firmly. "If you run out of energy in their custody you could end up dead or _worse_."

"R-right." Tailred agreed, looking past the floodlights to the silhouette of the alien, crouched unnoticed atop the floodlights. "What do I do then?"

"Look, their guns can't hurt you. Deal with the Elemerian and get back. If things get too crazy, backup is on the way."

"Okay." Tailred swallowed and nodded. "Alright, I can do that."

"Besides, you look like a little girl to them. I really doubt they're going to shoot you."

"Okay." There was an instinctive fear of having a gun pointed at her, but Tailred breathed out. "Easy enough."

The commander of the soldiers bellowed loudly. "Surrender now or-!"

There was a loud _shing_ sound as Tailred drew the great sword from her rightmost tail. "Aura **Pillar**!" She cried, firing a beam of energy into the air that arched downwards and slammed into the Elemerian.

"Open fire!" That officer screamed, and all the weapons around him went off immediately. The quiet of the night was disturbed by the terrible sound of automatic fire, and the earth around all around Tailred's ankles was shredded with small explosions of soil. After just a few seconds the fire stopped and the soldiers stopped to survey the damage.

There was none. Tailred had instinctively covered her eyes, but when the gunfire ended she looked down find herself completely unharmed. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw there was a perfect silhouette of herself carved into the wall directly behind her. Even the twintails were visible.

"That... didn't even sting." She said disbelievingly, as soldiers gaped and desperately tried to reload. She called out to them. "Sorry! I'll be out of your hair right away! Ahem. Break release!" Then her sword lot on fire as she leapt at the still paralyzed Elemerian.

"Noooooooo!" It screeched. "Orchidmantisguildy said this would work!"

"Grand **BLAZER!**" Afterburners on Tailred's hips went off, and she was propelled at even greaters speeds past the alien, slashing with her sword in a wide arc as she did.

"That liar! THAT LIAAAAAR!" He screamed before disappearing in a flash of light. The force of the explosion destroyed the floodlights he was standing atop, sending a rain of sparks showering over the soldiers below.

"Code red!" The officer shouted into his radio. "We have a code red!"

"Oops." Tailred cringed, before pressing a button on her communicator and getting recalled back to the base by the catapult.

When she stepped out of the machine and back into the console room, she was greeted by Tailblue. "Are you okay?" She asked, stepping closer.

"Yeah, no problem." Tailred transformed back into Souji. "Didn't even hurt a little bit."

Tailblue held her communicator up to her mouth. "Hey, Isabella. We just dealt with it, all clear you can go back to bed."

"Ugh, okay." The young teen's sleepy voice replied over the device. "Thanks, Senpai." There was a click as she signed off.

"We're here!" Twoearle announced loudly, as she and Erina ran out of the gate room.

"Tailred already dealt with it." Tailblue informed her.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, it was just one standard Elemerian." Souji shrugged. "They never learn."

Tailblue's communicator clicked back on suddenly and Isabella's scared sounding voice came over the other side. "Um, Senpai?"

"What's up?" She replied.

"I just got an emergency call on my phone, from the government, and so did everyone else in the house. Apparently, North Nekorea just fired a warhead that might hit Nyapon."

Instantly, Souji and Tailblue made eye contact, going pale at the same time. "Uh oh." He said.

"Can you find it?!" Tailblue turned to ask Twoearle.  
"I think so!" Twoearle approached the control panel, her fingers flying across the keyboard. A map of Nekorea appeared on the holographic globe. After a few more moments a dotted line appeared, tracking the missile's path from North Nekorea and heading southwards towards the border. "There it is."

"What do we do?" Erina looked like she was about to panic.

"We stop it!" Souji answered, and turned to Tailblue. "You're the only one with a flight module! You need to intercept it."

"I don't know how to disarm a nuclear bomb!" She protested.

Souji looked to Twoearle. "Do you?"

"Uh, maybe?" Her voice hitched upwards with uncertainty. "I'm not really an engineer or a physicist, except for all the engineering and theoretical physics I deal with."

"What do we do?" Tailblue looked to Souji, hesitant.

"...You could just cut it below the warhead." Twoearle turned to Tailblue. "I mean, it's definitely dangerous, you could explode the rocket fuel inside it, but it probably won't set of the nuke?"

"'Probably?'" Souji repeated dubiously. "What sort of chance are we talking here?"

"Ah… ninety percent chance of it not going off?" Twoearle shrugged.

"Oh, don't you _dare _give me that." Tailblue growled dangerously. "Remember the koalas!"

"Look, it might not even be a nuke in the first place!"

"Will I even survive if it blows up in my face?!" Tailblue shoved a finger in Twoearle's face. "This really could kill me!"

"Look, I never quite stress tested the tailsuits like that!" Twoearle threw her hands up in exaggeration. "I don't have a lot of nuclear bombs lying around, you know?!"

"Then I guess this wouldn't be the first time you tested something dangerous out on me!"

"Stop!" Souji snapped at Tailblue before turning to face her. "Can you do it? If we don't, it could hit a city!"

"Urgh…" Tailblue groaned before running towards the Catapult.

Souji raised the communicator to his mouth. "Isabella, are you there?"

"Yes."

"Tailblue is on her way to intercept the nuke."

There was a pause. "Oh, my god."

"Wake up your family and whoever else you can, and get them into the Secret Base. It's safer than any bomb shelter."

"R-right." She agreed, and her communicator clicked off.

"D-do you want me to do anything?" Erina asked, looking up at him.

That brought Souji up short. So far they hadn't learned to control her Tail Yellow form, and if she went berserk inside the secret base, who knew what could happen. "Just." He hesitated, trying to think of something for her to do. "For now, just wait until we need you."

A resigned look came over her, and she looked back to the ground. "Okay."

Immediately Souji felt guilty, but he didn't know what else to do. If she could be relied upon then she might have a chance to shoot the missile down or something like that, but as it stood she was potentially more harmful than helpful in this situation. "Actually, there is something you can do." He realised. "It's probably not smart to have all of us on this side of the gate. We need someone on the other side in case something happens on Earth."

"Right." She agreed, but didn't seem much happier with that assignment than with the first.

He'd have to make it up to her later. For now he had to focus on this. Turning back to the hologram of the globe, his eyes tracked the missile the path of the missile, and the new dotted blue line that showed his best friends closing in on it. He didn't notice his own knuckles turn white as he nervously gripped the chair in front of him.

* * *

It wasn't hard for Tailblue to find the missile. Flying where the air was thin above the clouds, she could easily see the long trail of smoke it trailed behind it. _Oh, geeze. _She thought to herself. _This might actually be the craziest thing I've ever done._ And she'd definitely done some pretty crazy stuff.

As she closed in on the weapon, she could make out its colour more clearly. It was khaki green, with a single red star on its front. It was thinner at the top than it was at the bottom, with four indentations near the exhaust that looked like stabilizers.

"Here goes nothing!" She cried to herself as she aimed to intercept it. The air resistance as she drew her arms back to swing her spear was enormous. If she wasn't in a tailsuit the weapon would easily have been ripped from her hands. Just as she came into range of the rocket, she swung and felt the head of the weapon bite into metal and tear it apart. There was a shower of sparks, followed by something liquid spraying over her face, and all of a sudden a fireball blocked her view on all sides. She was buffeted and sent flying through the air for a long moment until after a moment of uncontrolled spinning she was able to regain control. Rising up to haver in place, she watched as smoking wreckage of the missile fell towards the earth below.

"Guys, I got it! The fuel blew up, but the nuke didn't."

"Oh, thank goodness." Twoearle's relieved voice came over the communicator. "You're still inside the country's borders, too, so it's their mess to clean up."

"Alright, I'm coming back now-"

A blinding flash consumed Tailblue's vision, and she instinctively shrieked and covered her face as everything turned white. There was no sound for a moment, until it all returned with a terrible roar. Buffeted so heavily by the air, she was again spinning out of control as the wave of annihilation washed over her.

* * *

The room was completely silent for a long moment as they waited for Tailblue to finish after suddenly cutting off.

"Blue?" Souji asked into the microphone, confused and worried. "Are you still there?"

The only response was silence.

"Blue?"

The screen they were looking at changed, as the dotted line that represented the distance the nuke traveled suddenly terminated.

"The nuke just exploded." Twoearle announced.

"WHAT?!" Souji turned to her, before yelling into the communicator. "Are you there?! Blue?! Tailblue?!" In desperation he turned back to Twoearle. "She's not answering."

"Her Tailsuit just stopped broadcasting vital signs."

It felt like someone had ran a truck over Souji's stomach. His face turned pale and he stared at Twoearle with shock. "What?"

She didn't have time to respond. Her fingers danced across the keyboard as she brought up and lowered various menus. "I'm getting nothing from the suit." She pronounced, grimmly.

"Aika is… dead?"  
"I don't know." Twoearle answered bluntly. "Her signal might have cut out because of the EMP." She bit her lip and stared at the screen, unsure. "I don't know what to do."

"Could she really have survived a nuclear bomb?"

"That's…" Twoearle ran her fingers through her hair "I just don't know."

"We need to find her!" He started to move towards the catapult.

"No stop!" Twoearle turned him and grabbed his shoulder. "That's a blast zone on the other side! Even as Tailred, you could step through and get knocked out instantly just by the heat and radiation."

"I don't care!" He pulled away from her touch, anger clouding his vision. "I need to help her!"

"It's an enormous blast radius, and she would have been sent flying to god knows where by it, Souji!" Twoearle snapped at him. "She could be anywhere!"

"Then what can we do?" He pleaded, desperation leaking into his voice.

"...Just let me think, alright?" Twoearle looked back at the screen. "I can figure this out, just be quiet!"  
Souji shut his mouth with a click of his teeth coming together. Looking like he wanted to cry almost as much as he wanted to rush through the catapult, he stood there nervously waiting for something to do.

"Alright, we need to figure out where she is, and if she's alive." Twoearle nodded as she talked to herself. "The instruments in her suit don't work because the EMP scrambled them, but the Elemera itself should be intact. The suit is made up of two parts twintail Elemera, and Aika also possess twintail Elemera."

"So if you can find three twintail Elemera close to each other, that's where Aika will be." Souji guessed.

"Only if she's still alive." Twoearle replied grimmly. "If I had satellites in orbit I could find her easy, but I haven't set up any on Catyu yet." A sudden look of **realisation **came over her features, and she ran out of the room. "The ship! I can scan for her with the ship!"

Souji followed her into the hangar, and watched as she hurried up the extended ramp of the captured Elemerian ship. "Should I come with you?"

"No! Wait here to use the Space Jump Catapult!"

"Right!" Souji ran back into the control room and stood over the control panel, nearly jogging on the spot with excitement.

"Souji?" A voice came over his communicator.

"Twoearle?" He asked.

"No, it's Isabella. I've got my family and the staff, and we're in the elevator on the way down." She hesitated. "I heard Senpai cut out on the radio. Is she okay?"

"We don't know." Souji answered honestly. "We're trying to find that out."

"Did the bomb go off?" Her voice sounded so incredibly small.

"Yes." He hesitated, then added. "The suit still might have saved-"

"Souji?" Twoearle's voice came over the communicator, there was a slight quaver in her voice.

Instantly he forgot about his conversation with Isabella. "I'm here!" He responded to Twoearle. "Have you found her?"

"..."

There was a ding behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see Isabella step off the elevator, along with a crowd of other cat people he'd never met before. She was holding her communicator close to her pale face, wearing an expression that Souji imagined was similar to his own.

"Twoearle?" He asked over the communicator.

"She's not there." Twoearle answered. "I can't find her pattern of Elemera anywhere on the peninsula."

"W-what about the ocean?" Isabella demanded over her communicator.

"I checked there too." Now Twoearle sounded brittle. "Oh, Souji. I'm so sorry."

"NO!" He snapped. "Check again!"

"I will." Twoearle promised, and her communicator clicked off.

There was a long moment, as Souji stared at the device on his wrist, waiting for something from Twoearle. In the corner of his vision he saw tears welling in Isabella's eyes as she approached him. They stood together in tense silence, waiting for a report from Twoearle. All the new strangers in the room stood around, looking on awkwardly at the emotional scene in front of them and trying not to stare too curiously at the trove of alien technology.

The communicator clicked back on. "Souji." All of them heard Twoearle swallowing. "I'm sorry, Souji. But there's nothing."

At his shoulder, a loud sob came from Isabella as Souji rocked back on his heels and it barely registered to him that Isabella rushed over to her father, wailing loudly. He staggered backwards, his back hitting the console and he slid to the ground in disbelief, ears ringing and vision blurring.

"I'm so sorry, Souj-"

The communicator clicking cut across Twoearle's voice, and Souji barely realised that he was the one that shut the device off from his end.

_I promised Uncle Kenta I'd look out for her._

* * *

"Huh." Orchidmantisguildy watched the footage of Tailblue get caught in nuclear fire, and shook his head in near disbelief. "I must admit, I didn't expect this to go so well."

Below him, two attendants at their stations made uncertain eye contact with each other before returning to their work. All across the bridge other guildy's were having similar reactions, unsure if they should be pleased about the demise of their enemy, or upset that their ally, Fleaguildy, was lied to sacrificed so the plan could work.

"Well, I would call this plan a roaring success." Orchidmantisguildy clapped his taloned hands together. "I only intended this as an experiment, but such results!" He waved his hand and stood up. "Now, take us to Earth! Let's see what chaos we can raise there!"


	19. 19 Locked In Here With Me

Private Byung-Heun tried to avoid looking at the twisted mess of ashen flesh, warped metal, and melted rubber that sat at his knees, but it was kind of hard to avoid. It really was unpleasant to see. Human shaped, with the metal of its gauntlets fused together, locking it's arms in front of its face in an instinctive, but failed attempt to protect its eyes. The heat of the nuclear explosion had reacted strangely with its hair, seeming to crystallize it into long, cracked overlapping plates of bluish glass like substance that were somehow still intact, resembling a pair of long tails running down its back. Between its fingers, Byeung-Heun could just see its jaw locked open in what was no doubt a final, terrible scream of pain. This was made all the more disturbing by its burnt skin and childish appearance.

As unpleasant as it was, though, that wasn't why he didn't want to look at it. All around him he could tell his fellow soldiers felt the same way, pressed up against each other in the confines of their APC. They were seated in two rows across from each other, with the dead alien sat on the ground between them, all of them trying to avoid touching it as the heavy treads of the vehicle jostled them up and down. They didn't want to touch it or look at it, because it was almost certainly radioactive.

The alien had been right next to the nuclear blast when it had gone off. At the time it was airborne and flying under its own mysterious propulsion, so it had careened wildly away from the explosion and far into the remote regions of the country, eventually crashing to the earth and digging a long furrow into the soil. Luckily for the country, but unluckily for Byeung-Heun's platoon, by sheer coincidence they had been less than a minute away, and had been ordered to retrieve it with the assurances that their lead lined, ceramic composite APC's hull would protect them from the radiation just fine. That was likely true, but then the platoon commander had ordered Byeung-Heun's squadron to move the dead alien into the back of the vehicle with them.

Somehow, he doubted the APC's hull would protect them from _that_.

"Ten minutes until we arrive!" The Sergeant called from the rear of the vehicle, possibly in an attempt to reassure his men.

_Am I even still going to be able to have children?_ Byeung Heun asked himself, his tail curling up nervously beneath him.

* * *

As terribly hot as the day was, Kenta Tsube couldn't help but smile to himself even as he sweated profusely beneath his long sleeved and buttoned up collared shirt. If he were a less disciplined man, he would undo the top row to let himself breath a bit, but doing so would be an obvious display of his discomfort, which was unacceptable. In front of him, six black belts from his dojo practiced kata's directly in the sunlight. He carefully positioned them in front of the large window at one end of his doujo, and he could see the sweat stains developing under their armpits and on their chests.

Kenta was supposed to have retired years ago, but somehow he could never quite bring himself to quit, even if officially he had hired other men to act as instructors. The truth was he just loved karate too much to leave. Even if Aika were to take over the doujo at eighteen, he couldn't imagine himself quietly watching from a distance and just leaving everything to her. He would miss the smell of sweat, the sounds of feet slipping on hardwood, the incredible satisfaction that came from improvement and just _everything_ about it, really.

In front of him, one of the blackbelt's slipped up slightly, falling out of position for a fraction of a second, before recovering. Embarrassedly, he hurried to catch up to his friends, trying to ignore the long, hard look Kenta skewered him with.

Yes, to truly love this sport you had to learn to appreciate pain. Both giving it, and receiving it. Especially giving it. This was something he'd been careful to teach Aika. It's impossible to bring yourself to spend hours every day learning the perfect way to strike someone without the desire to do so.

Kenta still remembered the first day he met his granddaughter. It had been an early birth, and Aika was a small baby as a result, though she was healthy and strong despite it. When he first held her, her entire head had fit inside Kenta's palm while she clung to his thumb, and it was still one of his happiest memories. Another one of those memories was of Aika when she first started to walk, and almost immediately started to copy the strange motions her grandfather practiced each morning in his daily katas.

None of his other grandchildren, or even his own children, had been so eager to follow in his footsteps. Of course he would never say it aloud, it would be needlessly cruel to people he definitely cared about, but Aika was his favourite. His heart had been so soft toward her, that he hadn't even taught her the karate his doujo practiced, the kind that was for normal competitions. Instead he taught her the kind that he learned from his father after the war, the kind that included elbow strikes to the back of the neck, and palms strikes to break your enemies cheekbones. The kind of karate that could very definitely kill a man.

It had just seemed like such a waste to allow such talent, such passion, such _sadism_ to be put into a watered downed starbucks karate that would only be useful for winning a regional competition.

Aika had come back from her trip recently, though strangely Kenta felt she was avoiding him. This was worrying, but whatever she was trying to hide he was sure she would reveal to him in due time. The thing that would upset him most would be to learn she was slacking off, but he knew she wouldn't do that if she had a choice. She enjoyed the art as much as he did.

From the corner of his eye, Kenta noticed a red haired young man walk through the Dojo doors. Souji stood at the entrance, waiting for permission to cross the floor. Something about his countenance was odd, though.

Yes, the boy was usually slightly nervous around him, as though he were afraid to be made to practice long hours against his will, but to Kenta's eye today he wasn't showing any of that. His shoulders hung low, and there were deep bags under each eye that seemed swollen with shed tears.

This appeared to be a serious matter. Leaving his students to practice, Kenta walked around the edge of the room towards the boy.

"Good morning, Souji." He greeted him calmly.

The boy looked up at him, before his eyes dropped to the floor. "I'm so sorry, Uncle Kenta."

A worried feeling wormed its way through Kentas chest, and towards his stomach. "Sorry about what, boy?"

"Aika's… she's missing." Then he shook his head. "And we think she's…" He trailed off miserably, as if afraid to voice his concern.

"...Dead?" Kenta asked, and despite his best efforts to remain calm there was a worried strain to his tone.

Souji nodded miserably.

With careful slowness, Kenta nodded, even as he breathed out and found his breath nearly hitching upwards into something emotional and inappropriate. Turning around, he strode across the dojo to his black belts and barked at them, loudly. "That's enough for today! Go home!"

"Master?" One of them asked him confused.

Kenta waved a dismissive hand at him. "Leave."

"But it's only been half an-"

"I'm tired of trying to teach useless vermin!" Kenta snapped at them, the blood rushing to his head with such force that he was growing dizzy. "All of you get out!"

"Uncle Kenta…" Souji looked on, shocked.

"And you, _boy_!" Kenta's lips pulled back, turning his normally placid face into a harsh snarl. "Come here and tell me everything that happened!"

The disgruntled black belts shouldered their way past Souji, who made his way to the front of the room despondently.

Still feeling dizzy, and breathing hard, Kenta forced himself to sit down on the floor, despite how he felt the need to pace about the room. "Tell me everything! From the start!"

Souji nodded, sinking to the ground next to Kenta. "This all started a year ago, when Aika and I were eating in the cafe..."

* * *

The spaceship still hung in orbit above Catyu and Twoearle remained inside it. Her lab coat was discarded, lying on the floor in the middle of the bridge, and her shoes and socks were somewhere around there too. Miserable bags hung under her eyes as she stared desperately at the screen in front of her and scanned endlessly through every strong twintail Elemera on Catyu. As impossible as it was, some part of her still hoped that Aika had merely flown off course with her flight module, and that she was really just in some market in China, or whatever the Catyu equivalent was, trying to find a way back to Nyapon.

Alas, nothing. Twoearle couldn't even find the signature of the blue suit, no matter where she looked. The suit had to be recovered, or even if it was damaged beyond recognition, the Elemera it was composed of needed to be found. As long as Twoearle could get those twintail attributes back, a new suit could be created and a new warrior recruited, though she hated thinking about things like that. She'd really like to curl up on her bed in the Mitsuka residence and cry for a good few nights, but there wasn't time to waste on something like that. Not to mention there was no way she could face Souji right now.

If Aika was alive, Twoearle had to find her as soon as possible, and even if she wasn't she still needed to be found before someone else put their hands on the suit.

"Come on!" Twoearle snapped, smacking her palm against the console after another failure. "Please, just be there." She begged, restarting the scan. "Come on, it has to have-"

The search returned zero results.

Slumping down in her seat, Twoearle covered her face and wondered what to do. There was no way she could go back to Earth empty handed, at the very least she needed to give the Tsube family a body to bury.

It really was the least she could do after getting their daughter killed. At the thought of having that conversation, Twoearle found herself once again burying her face in her hands and trying to get her emotions under control.

"Coffee. I just need coffee." She told herself, standing up. "A nice cup of joe and then back to work, feeling refreshed and energis-"

With a yell of surprise, Twoearle fell forward onto her face, having tripped over something. Looking back she saw her feet had somehow got tangled up in her own discarded lab coat. Back when they were on the spaceship together, Aika had always nagged at Twoearle, warning about what could happen if Twoearle didn't clean up after herself. Somehow Aika always ended up picking up the mess herself and doing the laundry too. Rubbing her now aching nose, Twoearle stood up and made for the kitchen, only to come up short as she looked through the door.

The sink was full of dirty dishes, mostly used coffee mugs, but the occasional plate with rice dried to its surface, as well as a few sets of chopsticks, and cooking utensils. The rotten smell was pretty strong, and Twoearle realised the dishes hadn't been done in several days.

Unbidden, tears welled in her eyes and she slammed the door shut, before rushing back to the pilot's chair. "No time for coffee." She told herself, and restarted the scanner. "Too busy."

Once again, it returned with zero results.

"Just one more." She repeated, and tried again.

And again after that.

* * *

The scientists, engineers, and surgeons had all watched together as the alien's body was taken from the APC and moved to a gurney. A team of tired, and frightened looking soldiers came out soon afterwards, nervously looking around at the faces of the observers, which included a number of higher ups from the party, and even a member of the Kim family, though not the supreme leader himself. The soldiers in their khaki's looked woefully underdressed compared to the gas masks and radiation suits everyone else wore. Apparently they'd taken the creature here from their base all the way in the mountains, a journey of nearly an entire day. Brave of them, given how dangerously radioactive it was.

"Take the sample to the decontamination immediately!" The order came from the head scientist, a man named Jin-sun.

The other's hurried to carry out his orders, rushing the blackened and charred cadaver away. It soon emerged from its chemical shower, looking much the same as it had entered but now only emitting low amounts of radiation. It was moved to a table in the hospital, though normally a body would be reserved for the slab in the morgue. In this case, the body was much too valuable to go to such a place. Who knew what incredible technologies could be recovered from this third alien invader?

Before they went to cut it open, Jin-sun had his team take many photos of it, and make many notes. He himself took the time to circle it, and sketch up hypotheses in his notebook as he did. This alien looked Catian, like the other two, but also like the others its ears were further down its head, just above and back from where the jaw bone connected to the cranium. This one had died intercepting a weapon aimed at the enemies of the People's Republic, implying some kind of alliance between it and the imperialist bastards. Maybe it wasn't an alien, just some kind of lab grown super soldier from Ameowrica? But then why the ears? Perhaps a more reasonable explanation was the aliens had used local DNA to create a creature capable of fighting under the conditions of Catyu, and the real aliens were some kind spineless invertebrate incapable of moving under gravity.

Other suggestions like this went into many different notebooks, before the go ahead was given to begin the dissection.

The operating room was cleared, and the surgeons went through many careful sterilisations before they even came close to a scalpel. The team of five emerged into the room, clad in surgery masks, elbow length gloves, and lime green scrubs. Unusually among the tools they had prepared was a welding torch, in case the armour plating was too difficult to remove otherwise.

"Scalpel." Jin-sun ordered, and when the tiny blade was handed to him he leaned forward over the alien to make his first incision, not on the flesh, but on the rubber of the alien's battle armour. It was agreed that if they could remove the creature's armour first the rest of the dissection would go much easier, and the most obviously vulnerable place on the armour was the rubber looking part that covered the subject's torso. Strangely, the blade didn't pierce the substance at all, even when Jin-sun tried to cut it open by pressing down more firmly. He was pressing so hard against the substance that his scalpel blade actually snapped down the middle.

Curious murmurs immediately broke out in the observation room.

After a moment's thought, Jin-sun ordered, "Circular saw." And held out his hand. The attendant handed him the device, and he flicked it on with the flip of a switch. He went to make an incision in the same place, only for the teeth of the saw to get caught on the rubbery substance again. When he pulled the saw back and turned it off, he saw that the teeth had warped out of shape and blunted.

"Fascinating." He murmured to himself, before looking to another attendant who was filming the whole process with a camera. "Did you get that?"

The man nodded and gave an 'ok' sign with his free hand.

Looking down at the alien, Jin-sun thought carefully for a moment. "Let's see if we can disengage the armour using these controls." He indicated the buttons on the body's wrist.

An attendant moved over, and said aloud. "First button, at twelve'oclock position relative to the creature's wrist." He pressed it, and nothing happened. "Second button at three'oclock position." Again, nothing. Slowly but surely, he worked his way across the entire control panel with no real result.

_Unlucky._ Jin-sun cursed to himself. "Alright, get the blow torch-"  
"Sir!" The man holding the alien's arm yelled, looking up at him. "I found what seems like a battery port." He tapped the bottom of the creature's wrist. "Right here."

Jin-sun crouched down and found the place the man had indicated. "Screw driver." An attendant quickly handed it to him, and he used the tool to pry open what did look like a battery panel. The joints had warped from the heat, and he could feel them scraping against each other as he worked them, but with a firm press the panel came open. Inside was what honestly looked like a power port, though whatever strange batteries were inside it had clearly swollen and burst. After he dug them out, he found the connecting powerports seemed intact.

Jin-sun held out his hand again. "Double AA's." Immediately an attendant handed him the batteries, and the surgeon placed them into the device, and closed the panel again.

Immediately, there was a burst of light from the cadaver. A startled attendant tripped over backwards, dropping his notebook and pen as a blue energy started at the toe of the body and slowly, stutteringly ran up its legs and towards its head. The entire body was lit up by the glow for a moment, before bursting and disappearing.

When it was gone, in place of a blackened damaged body, wearing the ruins of alien battle armour, was a female, athletic looking teenager without a tail, and with small, fleshy, shriveled ears on the sides of her head. Naked, except for the blackened metal band around its wrist, but totally intact.

The entire room stared in disbelief.

While everyone else was frozen in shock, Jin-sun stepped forward to check her pulse. It took a long moment, but after a few seconds his sensitive hands definitely felt a full beat under his fingers. "It's alive!" He announced.

Excited murmurs broke out in the room.

Jin-sun thought for a moment, before turning to the attendants. "Manacles!" He ordered.

Massive, heavy, dark chains were brought forwards, and two different doctors moved to either side of the alien to secure it to the bed.

One of them was distracted for a brief second, as he looked at the nude alien's underdeveloped chest. "Some kind of delayed puberty, perhaps?" He speculated aloud. "Or maybe it was designed to be aerodynamic."

Jin-sun gave the man a glare. "MANACLES!" He repeated, loudly.

The man flinched and turned back to the alien, hurrying to affix the chains only to freeze when he found the creature awake, and looking directly at him.

"It's awake! It's awa-" A fist slammed into his jaw with enough force to break all his teeth and lift him a foot from the ground. He crashed to the floor and slid across it until his head banged into a wall. He didn't get back up.

The other attendant with the manacles screamed, and tried to back away only for the alien to reach across the other side of the table and grab him by the front of his shirt, before pulling him into a vicious headbutt. There was a loud crack, and he fell to the floor bonelessly, blood quickly pooling beneath his head.

"Security!" Jin-sun screamed, rushing for the exit. "It's hostile! It's awake and it's hostile!"

Two armed guards carrying assault rifles burst through the door to the surgery room, but before they could even spot the creature and raise their gun to fire, it was upon them, striking one in the throat. Even as he fell to the ground choking, and turning purple, the monster spun and lashed out with it's heal, catching the other soldier in the side of his helmet and launching him across the room.

Jin-sun didn't wait to see their fate, he just charged down the corridor and ignored the sounds of men screaming behind him. As he glanced over his shoulder, he just caught the site of a surgeon desperately swinging a saw at some unseen foe, until the alien's small form seized the man, lifted him bodily from the ground, and slammed his spine over its knee.

Hands shaking with fear, Jin-sin rushed to the elevator and pressed the _up_ button repeatedly. His heart soared as the elevator doors finally opened. He rushed inside, jamming the switch marked ground floor again and again. Through the gap between the closing doors he could see the alien running towards him just as they closed in front of its face.

He breathed a sigh of relief, slumping against the wall and catching his breath. Suddenly, there was a bang and a shriek of metal, and a slim pairs of hands forced their way between the doors, forcing them out of shape. Pitiless crimson eyes locked onto his face, chilling his blood.

"No!" He screamed as the elevator doors where wrenched apart, and the monster grabbed the front of his lab coat. "Stay away! Stay away from me! Nooooooooo!" His cries fell on deaf ears as he was stripped of his clothes.

**AN: Anyone else remember that scene from Spiderman 2 with Doc Oc in the surgery room? Man that was a weird scene. It was like something out of horror rather than a superhero movie. I always wondered what was up with that scene, and why it was filmed like that.**

**Oh, well.**


	20. 20 Hopeless Quarantine

"Gentleman, thank you all for coming on such short notice." The words were welcoming, but the atmosphere in the room was thick with tension, and no one seemed to care much for the speaker's polite tone either. The speaker was a gruff looking military man, with the gold of a general on his shoulders. A single red star decorated his black eyepatch, which alongside the grey streaks in his hair gave him a proud military bearing.

Around him was a collection of much younger men, all with hard, drawn faces and scars of their own. The tent was crowded, but outside they all could hear the sounds of heavy vehicles moving, along with work crews desperately setting up barricades. Looking out the window of the tent they could all see the massive weapon emplacements being brought forward alongside rifleman, artillery, and machine gun nests all pointed directly at the front entrance of a large concrete bunker.

The general resumed his briefing. "Thirty one hours ago, as you're all aware, the famous hero Tailpink revealed her true colours for all, and launched an attack on a military base just south of the Capital." From a briefcase in his hands, he took out a large photo and laid it on a table in front of him for them all to see. The image was of the renowned Tailsuit Warrior, Tailpink, but for whatever reason on that day she had opted to wear a cravat that looked like it was made from flower petals. "During this attack she claimed allegiance to aliens from another planet, that she identified as Earth, as well as the South, before our brave forces were able to drive her off. She retreated via some form of as yet unexplained teleportation."

Immediately, a sharp looking young Catian put up his hand.

"Yes?" The general looked to him.

"How were they able to do that?"

"We're still not sure." The General frowned, not liking his own answer. " But it appears the extreme fire power used against her had an effect of some kind, though there was nothing in the footage or on the ground reports to identify just how damaged she was."

The man nodded in understanding, lips pursing with thought.

"This is all known to the public, as was announced on our national broadcasting station just yesterday morning. Yet to be announced is that there was a second attack on one of our outposts on the parallel, this time from a new alien, currently tentatively named 'Tailred'." The general placed another photo on the table, this one of what looked like a young girl in a red leotard with armoured gauntlets, wielding a flaming sword as she rushed at some unseen opponent. "She too retreated after enough firepower was brought to bear against her. This attack took place at zero-twelve."

The assembled men all examined the photo. They were all professionals and military men of the highest calibre so they wouldn't say it out loud, but many of them thought she was rather cute.

"Finally, yesterday at zero-twenty, our glorious leader gave the order send a nuclear device towards the imperialists in the south in retaliation for sponsoring aliens to attack us. A new alien, currently tentatively identified as Tailflat, intercepted our missile mid flight and detonated it."

They had all heard about the explosion from last night, but this was the first time they'd heard the real reason for its existence. The official story was that it was another successful weapon test, although that 'test' had resulted in radiation raining down upon valuable farming land, meaning there would be a hard year to come for many.

"An armoured battalion was near the crash sight of where the alien came down, and was able to recover its body and bring it here for examination." The general added a new photo to the pile, this of a twisted and blackened corpse. "Our experts were about to begin a dissection, when the creature revived and escaped containment procedures."

This drew murmurs and gasps of disbelief from the assembled soldiers. "Where is it now?" The team leader asked.

"Currently, it fully controls the below ground sections of the bunker you see behind me."

"And the personel?"

The general turned to a tv screen just behind him, and turned it on. "I was just getting to that. The first thing Tailflat did was try to escape above ground, but was blocked when we sealed the elevator shaft via explosives, which trapped everyone caught below ground down there with it."

He stepped to the side, revealing what looked like live footage of a pile of people. Many of them were dead or possibly unconscious, with broken limbs and bruised faces, though others were still alive, shivering with pain and fear, praying to the Supreme Leader for deliverance. They were together in the middle of a concrete room, and all the tables had been pushed against one wall to make room for them.

"Is that from the base?" One soldier asked.

"Yes. It's the only camera from below ground that's still broadcasting." The general explained. "She's found and destroyed every other one. We believe Tailflat is using them as hostages."

"Has she made any demands?"

"As of right now, no, but when she does, no doubt freedom will be first on her list of priorities." The general turned to face the soldiers. "This is where you come in gentleman. There is a hidden set of stairs that can take you to the bottom of the facility, which is currently sealed at its entrance by a row of lockers. Your mission is to enter the facility, subdue the alien, and get our people back."

"Why us?" One of them asked. "We were stationed on the Southern Border before this."

"Because you're the best of the best, soldier." The general informed him. "All of you represent the greatest our country has to offer with a unique specialisation." He indicated each of them one by one. "Assault, demolitions, close combat, tactical leadership, and marksmanship. You may not play by the book, but I'll be damned if you don't get the job done."

The last man to be pointed to raised his hand up.

"What is it?"

"A sniper isn't going to be very useful down there." He very reasonably pointed out. "Maybe I should just sit this one out?"

"...No." The general groused. "Anyway, even in the face of this alien menace, I have no doubt that you will triumph."

The briefing went for a little longer than that, with a careful plan of entry established, and special state of the art equipment delivered to each soldiers along with blueprints of the base. Showcasing their status as one elite unit, they entered the building together, covering each other's blindspots in sinuous movements, moving in sync down the stairs towards the basement.

"We're at the blast door." The sergeant announced over the radio. "Opening it now."

The operations centre watched the video feed with bated breath as the men moved steadily down the dozens of flights of stairs, before coming to its secret exit on the bottom floor. With barely a creak, the metal cabinet that concealed the door was rolled aside, and the five men entered the lair of the beast.

Five minutes later, the general watched on the camera feed as the door to the hostage room was opened once again, and all five of the People's Republic of North Nekorea greatest soldiers were unceremoniously tossed onto the pile, sans their equipment and weapons. The close combat specialist in particular seemed to have had all four limbs broken.

"Uh, oh." The General winced at the sight.

Tailflat, no longer nude, but now wearing an oversized shirt and lab coat that were too large for her, stepped into the frame and began rifling through the pockets of the men. Her bare legs were visible, her modesty only protected by the way the hem fell nearly to her knees.

"Oh, nooooo." The General gasped in horror, as the alien withdrew from one of their pockets a blueprint of the facility. "Noooooo…" He covered his mouth and groaned into both hands. The alien soon walked off screen, slamming the door shut behind her. Standing up, he ran out the tent towards the base as fast as his aged legs would carry him. "Close the blast door! Close the blast door!"

The man sitting just inside the entrance was a radio operator, who just happened to have a large pair of headphones covering over his ears. He didn't hear the general yelling until he was within ten metres. "Hm?" He pulled off the pair of headphones, to see the wheezing commander standing next to him.

"The blast doors! The general gasped. "Close them now!"

"Right away, sir!" The man put his headphones back on and relayed the orders.

A hundred metres away, and down a flight of stairs another soldier heard the command and gave a hand signal to another standing by a panel on the wall. That soldier reached across and immediately flipped a switch. Behind him two, ten metre tall, armour plated doors began to close as a red light flashed repeatedly. The massive slabs of reinforced metal slowly rumbled closer to each other, their interlocking metal teeth waiting to come together and snap shut, like the jaws of a hungry beast. The doors were only a few centimetres apart, when a hand slipped between them and halted their progress.

The watching soldiers gaped as what looked like a teenage girl wedged herself between the closing doors, brought her leg up to press against the doors. With a grunt of exertion she pushed them apart, before stepping out from between them. They were so stunned by the sight that it took them a few seconds to remember they had guns and they should use them. By then it was far too late.

* * *

It had been a few hours since the lights on the lower floors were shut down, forcing Aika to scrounge up a flashlight in order to navigate the darkness. She didn't know where she was, she didn't speak the language of her captors and the translator on her tailsuit bracer seemed to be broken too, so there was no choice for her but to subdue all the soldiers she came across. There hadn't even been a pair of pants down their that fit her, all of them falling off her slim hips without a belt to secure them. Eventually she'd stumbled across a more heavily armed team of soldiers in the darkness, who just happened to be carrying a map she could use to find a way out of here.

The jerks had almost shut the door on her by the time she rushed up all those flights of stairs, and it had been a heavy door too. She'd had to put almost her entire body weight into forcing it open, and on the other side of it were more soldiers who tried to shoot her!

"Seriously, what is even going on?" Aika grumbled to herself as she searched through their pockets. There was more useless guns and ammunition, and a large radio that she couldn't use if no one on the other end could speak her language. Aside from those, all she found were pictures of women and children, which she could only assume were the soldier's family. Feeling a little guilty, she left those there. The only things she recovered that she could imagine any kind of use for was a pair of grenades that she stuffed into the front pockets of her coat.

At the end of the tunnel she could just make out sunlight, which forced her to squint her eyes against the harsh brightness as she approached. After hours spent underground, she finally emerged into the sunshine and smiled at the feeling of its warmth on her skin. A smile that stayed in place, though quite brittle, as her eyes adapted and she found of hundreds of soldiers arrayed in front of her, all aiming rifles in her direction. She could also see a number of what looked like humvees with much larger machine guns aimed at her too. There was even an attack helicopter and a tank!

"Okay, this is just getting silly." She growled, before reaching for her grenades.

Immediately, they all opened fire. The ground around her was torn and shredded by thousands of bullets and rockets. Great clouds of dust were thrown into the air, fully obscuring their targets for long seconds, until they cleared away to reveal a shriveled and blackened corpse, wearing fragments of armour.

A blue light washed over that body, transforming it back into Aika Tsube, who immediately pitched a grenade at the helicopter with such force that it shattered the windscreen and embedded itself in the cockpit wall. The soldiers could only hurry to reload, as the teenager charged forward and leapt to land on the roof of one of the humvees. The man operating its turret only had time to scream before he was lifted bodily out of the turret port and thrown away over Aika's shoulder. She dropped another grenade into the hole, before leaping again to land on top of the tank just as the helicopter above exploded and went spinning to the earth in a rain of fire and fragments.

There was the sound of rending metal and Aika's strained grunting as she ripped up the hatch, before hopping inside to shelter from the hail of bullets that followed. Inside, the three man crew screamed and went for their service pistols, but were no match for Aika in such close confines. She forcibly ejected them all from the top of the vehicle, before climbing out after them and selecting the next vehicle as her target. She proceeded like that, targeting the enemies heavy weapons and destroying them all by hand, or climbing inside to take care of the crew.

With the last Humvee dealt with, she looked down to find only soldiers remained, though there were hundreds of them. Sighing to herself, she climbed down from the wreckage of the last vehicle and got to work there as well. Whenever she found herself surrounded and without protection, she would transform back to the ruined form of Tailblue to wait out the bullets, before transforming back into herself and rushing back into the midst of the soldiers to slowly deal with them one by one.

By the time all the soldiers were dealt with and thrown into a groaning pile, Aika was only breathing a little harder. She wiped an arm over her damp forehead before stretching out her back. "Not a bad workout." She murmured to herself, before finally taking the time to examine the device on her wrist in the light of day. Compared to her other form, it looked relatively intact. It still had its coating of blue paint, and there wasn't any visible evidence of damage, but when she pushed the button or tried to contact any of the others nothing happened.

Oh well, she'd just have to figure this out for herself. All the soldiers she fought were Catians, which meant she was still on Catyu, and if the red stars on their uniforms were anything to go by, that meant she was still in North Nekorea. Damn it, that meant it would take forever to walk and swim back to Nyapon, and she had no idea how to drive a car, let alone a boat or a plane. Maybe she could find a phone and call Isabella? Although, Aika wasn't sure she remembered her number...

Looking around, the only place that seemed a little bit promising was a large nearby tent. She flipped open the canvas door, and found a group of Catian men and women inside. They were all wearing officer's uniforms, though they were all only armed with pistols on their hips. One of them pulled his gun with a shaking hand, and tried to point it at Aika, only for her to immediately cross the distance between them and break his arm in three places. He fell to the ground screaming, and another woman went for her gun, only to freeze in terror as Aika put her hand over the woman's and firmly shook her head.

"Don't try it." She growled, looking at the others in the room and pointed a finger at the ground. "Put them down."

They all looked at each other nervously, before complying and undoing their holsters.

After collecting their weapons, Aika threw them away out the front door of the tent, before turning back to her new hostages. "Phone?" She asked them, miming the motion with a thumb and forefinger.

None of them seemed to understand her, only growing more terrified and confused.

"Great." She grumbled, before stepping past them and into a sectioned off part of the tent. Inside she found a much older Catian with an eyepatch, wearing a uniform with numerous red stars pinned to each shoulder. He was seated and pointing a gun at her in his shaking hand.

"Oh, enough already." Aika slapped it away from him before surveying the rest of the room. There was a desk, and documents in a language she couldn't read, as well as a mobile phone on the desk. It was password protected, so she handed it to the general. "Open it."

He stared at her for a long moment, before he defiantly smashed it on the corner of the desk.

She stared at the ruined device, gritting her teeth, and thought of all the ways she could punish him, before deciding against it given his obvious frailty. "Whatever." She ground out, before stalking back into the other room. "Phones! Give me your phones!"

* * *

After hours of searching again and again for the Blue Suit's unique Elemera and not finding it, Twoearle had all but given up. There was only so many times she could see the words 'zero results' appear on screen, before she couldn't handle it anymore and took a break. With nothing better to do, and no courage to return to Earth, she'd dragged herself into the kitchen and actually got around to cleaning the dishes. After that she hadn't quite felt like going back to the console again, so she went ahead and broke out a cloth to clean the stovetop, and that turned into a desire to clean up the kitchen more generally. By the time she was done, the whole kitchen sparkled, and she wanted the rest of the ship to match.

Four hours later, the floors had been cleaned and waxed, the walls were sparkling, and all her laundry was done, too. The ship looked and smelled a lot better if she said so herself. It was as fine a job as any Aika had ever done. The only room Twoearle hadn't touched was the training room, because she couldn't step foot in their without collapsing from the high gravity.

Despite all that she'd accomplished, Twoearle knew she still couldn't face Souji. Aika was still dead because of her. And she'd still led her entire homeworld face first down the path to destruction. That second thought came unbidden, and she hurriedly suppressed it.

_It's never going to end._ The unwanted thought echoed through her head. _How many more people would suffer from her failure?_ Sometimes her mistakes even followed her around, and hurt more people. Like _Aisana…_

Nope, now was not the time to think of that. Twoearle had important things to do like clean the training room! But first she had to turn down the gravity.

Hurrying out to the bridge, she went to minimise the search function on the console, before hesitating. "Just check." She told herself, and hit the enter key.

_Searching…_

_One result found._

"See?" She told herself. "It was worth just searching, even if nothing-" She blinked and stared at the screen. "Oh! Oh, yes!" Pulse raising, she quickly sat up in her chair, and brought up the result. She'd found the blue suit and Aika's signature! They were deep in the north of the Nekorean peninsula. "Yes! Oh, my god, she's alive!" Without hesitating, she swapped over to the ship's controls and hurried directly to the location.

It was only as she was coming in to land that she noticed something was wrong. Columns of smoke rose into the air, and her atmospheric sensors picked up massive amounts of recent gunfire in the form of cordite lingering in the air. As she crested a hill, Twoearle found the strange sight of a large pile of groaning, twitching people piled on top of eachother, a ruined helicopter, several flipped over vehicles, and even a tank that looked like it had seen better days.

"What the hell?" Twoearle brought her ship down to land, just as Aika walked out of a large tent and waved at her happily. Twoearle hit the button for the loading ramp, and the teenager disappeared from sight, running around to enter the ship from the rear. It didn't take her long to piece together what happened, going by the broken limbs and blackened eyes of many in the pile. She winced in memory of a similar pain. "A monster. I've made a monster…"


	21. 21 Homecoming

The first thing out of Aika's mouth when she saw Twoearle again was, "Ninety percent, huh? Ninety percent?!" The next thing she did was pull the scientist into a headlock and give her a powerful noogie. "That's the last time I take odds from you!"

"Stop! Stop!" Twoearle kicked and screamed. "You're gonna set my hair on fire!"

"Were you seriously trying to get me killed?!" Aika continued, pitilessly pressing her knuckles against her victim's skull while rubbing it back and forth.

"I would never do that!" Tears were running down her face. "Look, we need to take off before reinforcements arrive!"

With a final harumph, Aika let her go. "Just get us back to the pool house."

"You're such a bully." Twoearle groaned, straightening up and running her fingers through her hair to try and straighten it out. Taking the pilot's chair, she grabbed the control panel and prepared to take off, while continuing her whining. "You promised Souji you wouldn't hurt me anymore!"

"I promised I wouldn't _hit_ you anymore, he said nothing about a good grapple." Aika corrected her, before pausing. "Wait, how did you know about that? That was just between the two of us."

"Oh, Souji told me." Twoearle replied quickly and with obviously feigned casualness.

"No, he didn't." Aika growled. "You listened in our conversation, didn't you?"

A single bead of sweat appeared on Twoearle's face. "What? No, I would never-"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Aika exploded, standing up suddenly.

The motion in the corner of her eye made the pilot flinch, and the entire ship jerked suddenly. "I'm driving! You can't hit me while I'm driving!"

"You are just the wooooooorst!" Aika howled, sitting down again. "You freaking pervert! I can never forget just how dangerous you are!"

"_I'm_ dangerous?" Twoearle's voice was utterly disbelieving. "How can _you_ of all people say that about anyone?! Or was that someone's else's pile of corpses I saw just then?"

"They shot at me!" Aika snapped back. "It was fully justified self defence!"

"Yeah, self defence like all those times you nearly killed me? If I was anyone else I would be dead! It's a wonder Souji's survived all these years with _you_ around!"

Aika flinched at that and looked away. "I'd never hurt Souji."

"Yeah, except for all those times you _do_." Twoearle pointed out. "Good luck to your children growing up!" Her voice turned sarcastic. "Oh dear, Mom got upset and slapped me so hard my face exploded. Hmm, well I guess we all have our scars from childhood!"

"Like you can talk, _lolicon_!" Aika bitterly spat back. "Aisana says, 'Hello.' I wonder how many _other _children's lives you've ruined already?"

She expected some kind of reply from Twoearle, only for awkward silence to descend on the bridge. Almost a full minute passed as Aika sat there, waiting for a retort until she glanced across to see the devastated expression on Twoearle's face. Her shoulders were shaking, and she seemed to desperately be holding back sobs.

"Twoearle?" Aika said in disbelief.

"I need a moment." Twoearle announced, jerking the ship upwards to rest outside of Earth's atmosphere. "Just give me a second."

Quiet descended on the bridge following her announcement, before she stood up and walked out of the room. Aika was left sitting there in painful silence, unsure what to do. Bickering with Twoearle was totally normal, but at some point that argument had turned nasty, and Aika wasn't entirely sure which of them had taken it there. It hadn't been her intention to make Twoearle cry, but then maybe it had been after all? Towards the end they'd both been saying things to deliberately hurt each other instead of just trying to win.

Now that she'd calmed down a bit, it seemed pretty clear she needed to try and apologize, though it rankled her pride to do so. It took another few minutes before Aika was able to force herself to stand and head towards Twoearle's room where she found the door closed and locked. Again she hesitated before knocking. "Twoearle? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" A cheerful voice replied, though to Aika's ears it sounded forced.

"Can we talk?"

"Hmm? About what?"

"...About us?"

"What's there to talk about?" Twoearle feigned ignorance.

"Can you at least let me in?" Aika sighed, feeling tired.

"I'm not decent right now!" Twoearle replied. "So, no!"

Heaving a sigh, Aika thought about what to do for a moment. This couldn't go on. Things between her and Twoearle had always been tense due to their rivalry over Souji, but that month in space they'd shared had changed things. Where before they could cooperate with the occasional bickering, Aika was now beginning to discover that maybe the reason they didn't get along had more to do with each other than with a boy. This talk was long overdue, one way or the other.

"I'm coming in!" Aika announced, stepping back to prepare a powerful kick.

"Don't break the door!" Twoearle shouted from the inside.

"Then open it!"

"No!"

"Then I'll open it!" She gave the door a light tap to make good on her threat, though the sound was loud enough you might think she'd swung a hammer at it.

"Alright, alright!" Twoearle grumbled and after a moment, the door slid open to reveal Twoearle standing there in her normal outfit. The only evidence of her previous emotional distress was a faint redness to her eyes.

The sight of her paralyzed Aika for another moment, unsure of what to do with Twoearle when they weren't at odds with each other or allied against Elemerians. "I shouldn't have barged in." She swallowed guiltily and looked away. "I'm sorry I said what I said."

"Sure." Twoearle shrugged, despondently.

"Just take the time you need and when you're ready to talk-"

"I don't want to talk." Twoearle interrupted her. "So let's just go home."

What was Aika supposed to do after that? Hold Twoearle down until she confessed? The rest of the journey to Nyapon was spent in silence. The light of the Spacejump Catapult faded and the of the hanger was visible through the front window, while the silence persisted all the way until they stepped off the ramp and Twoearle closed it behind them with her remote.

"Oh, I just remembered." Aika frowned and held out her arm with the broken Tailgear. "You might need to take a look at my other form, it's been burnt to a crisp."

"I'll take care of it once everybody knows your okay." Twoearle replied. "Speaking of which... Isabella, are you there?" She talked into her own communicator.

There was a long moment's silence before a soft, slightly husky voice answered. "I'm here."

"I found Aika, she's alive."

"What?"

"She's in the secret base-"

"I'm coming now!" Then Isabella hung up.

"Why did you tell her I was alive?" Aika frowned at Twoearle.

"Because we all thought you were dead?" Twoearle answered incredulously. "You know you got hit by a nuke, right?"

"Oh." Her eyes widened. "What about Souji? What about my family?"

"I think he was actually the one who broke the news to them?"

"Oh my god." Aika covered her mouth, in shock. "My parents? Grandpa? My big sister?"  
Twoearle shrugged. "Sorry, I was too busy searching for you."

"I gotta go." A feeling of panic welled up in Aika's chest, and she sprinted for the portal as fast as her legs would carry her. _Oh no, oh noooo…_ Of course Souji would tell her family, they deserved to know if she was dead, and if he was telling them that she died, he'd have to tell them how she died! The absolute last thing she wanted her family to know was that she was running around with her chest all but exposed! What meager chest there was at any rate.

Aika exploded out of the elevator into Adolescenza, and found the cafe full of customers, who all looked at her strangely.

"Hi!" She greeted them awkwardly. "Sorry, pardon me." She wove between them and rushed up the stairs to the Mitsuka residence. "Souji!" She called. "Souji!"

His room was empty, and the curtains were drawn shut.

"Oh no…" She groaned, heading back downstairs and bumping into Auntie Miharu who was coming up.

"Oh, you're okay!" The woman smiled happily and pulled her into a warm hug. "What are you wearing?"

"H-hi, Auntie." Aika greeted her and hugged her back after a moment. "I'm really glad to see you too, and I know you've been worried, but I need to stop Souji from telling more people I'm dead!"

"Oh, of course." Miharu let go of her and backed away a step, running a hand under her watery eyes. "Here, use the phone and call him." She directed Aika to the land line.

"Thanks!" She picked up the receiver and dialed in Souji's mobile number, only for him not to answer and for it to go speaker. "Damn it." She dialed again, only to stop when she heard a buzzing sound coming from up the hall. Following the sound to its origin, she found Souji's smartphone rumbling on his bedside desk. "Argh…" She groaned, running her fingers through her hair.

"You better hurry." Miharu warned her from the doorway. "I think I last saw him headed to the doujo."

"Thanks auntie!" Aika yelled, pocketing Souji's phone and hopping out the window over to her own bedroom. She quickly changed from the ill fitting bloody doctors coat into a skirt and bike shorts, along with a tanktop and running shoes. As she ran downstairs, she found the rest of her family going about their normal business, so apparently news of her demise hadn't reached them yet. Her mother tried to ask her about where she was last night, but Aika only had time to give her a hug and a kiss before she was out the door and sprinting across town.

Passersby looked at her with some surprise as she ran faster than most cyclists on their commute. From one end of town to the other, she ran the whole way at her top speed, and even with her impressive stamina she was breathing hard by the time the doujo came into sight. With a final burst of speed, she arrived at the front door to find a normal collection of young students.

"Oh, hello Aika." One of the instructors greeted her. Apparently he didn't there was any reason for not to be there, so she guessed the news hadn't spread this far yet.

"Good afternoon." She barely recognised him, but was careful to be polite. "Have you seen my grandfather?"

"I believe he's in the house."

"Thanks!"

Her grandparent's house was built on the same lot of land as the Doujo, with the driveway snaking up around the larger building blocked by a small gate that Aika easily hopped over. "Grandma?! Grandpa?!" She called out as she knocked loudly on the door, only to pause when she realised her knuckles had left indentations in the wood, and that the door was rattling in in its frame. "Souji, are you there?"

There was a long pause before the door was open from the inside, and there he was.

"Aika?" He said disbelievingly. "You're alive!" Tears rolled down his cheeks as he pulled her into a large hug. "I-I…" Whatever he intended to say he didn't finish, and instead he just pulled her closer.

It took her a moment to realise he was shaking and that she was actually holding up almost his entire body eight. _He really thought I was dead._ The realisation struck her. "Yeah, I'm okay." Aika soothed him. "I'm right here."

"Aika…" He repeated, hugging her as tightly as he could. "Y-You were-"  
"I'm fine, see? I'm fine." That wasn't strictly true, given the state of her other form, but it was the best reassurance she could give him at the moment.

He sniffled loudly right next to her ear, and hugged her even more tightly. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"It's okay, it's okay." Carefully, she rubbed his back, half afraid of hurting him if she squeezed him. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed several curious young faces in the doujo's back window, watching their. "Why don't we take this inside?"

"Okay." He nodded, swallowing and rubbing away a small amount of snot. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about." She reassured him automatically. "But this is important, Souji. How many people think I'm dead?"

"Just my Mom, your grandparents, and Erina right now."

That wasn't as bad as it could be. "Okay." Aika said, holding his phone out to him. "You need to call Erina right now, and tell her I'm okay, before this gets to anyone else."

"Okay." He nodded, his voice still thick with emotion. "Okay, you're right."

"I need to go talk to my grandparents now, but I'll be right back, I promise."

"Yes." He wiped his eyes once again and raised the phone to his ear.

Inside, Aika found the house empty. The dishes had been left undone, and the usual sound of a radio playing in the background was missing. Her grandparents weren't upstairs, or in the living room, but sitting together on the veranda outside.

"Grandma, grandpa!" She threw open the door and stepped outside. "I'm alive!"  
"Oh, Aika." Her grandmother moaned, and buried her wrinkled face in her hands, sobbing loudly.

At the same time her grandfather looked at her with an expression of obvious relief, though after a long moment he schooled it back to careful neutrality. "Welcome back, child." He beckoned Aika over and took her hand in his own, squeezing it gently before placing it on his wife's shoulder. Together they helped calm her down, and after a few minutes to compose herself, Aika's grandmother went inside to make tea.

While she was doing that, Souji came into the backyard. "I reached Erina. She was very relieved to hear you were okay."

"Oh, thank goodness." Aika breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling like things were back under control. "Okay, I'm gonna head back home and-"

"No, you're not." Kenta interrupted her. "Granddaughter, we have much to discuss."

_Oh, no. _"Souji, how much did you tell him?"

"He told me about everything, Aika." Kenta gave the boy a disapproving look. "Including his cross dressing habits."

"It's not like that, I swear-"

"I know he's weird, but I promise-

Souji began to defend himself at the same time as Aika rushed to speak.

They were both forestalled by Kenta raising his hand. While they were silent, he continued. "To tell the truth, I thought it was well passed the time for you to grow out of your Twintails." They both flinched at that. "But it seems to have served you well for your current career path."

"Uh, it's not really a career?" Aika pointed out.

Kenta frowned at her. "What is it, then?"

"Uh…" She glanced at Souji and he shrugged back at her. "A hobby?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "It appears I have been far too gentle with your training." Reaching out, he flicked her in the forehead, only to pause with surprise when she not only didn't respond but he a bruise begin under his fingernail. "Think, girl." He continued, his lips twitching downwards only slightly. "You're traveling to foreign worlds, and recruiting others to your cause, creating a coalition to protect people from Ultimaguil. Do you understand what you're doing?"

She took her time to think of an answer, but she couldn't quite see what he was getting at.

"I don't get it?" Souji said aloud.

"I'm disappointed." Kenta shook his head, and turned back towards the mountains. "When was my prize student so lacking in awareness? What is it called when two great powers do battle?"

"War?" Souji answered.

"Oh." Aika blinked, realising what he was hinting at. "Oh, no…"  
"Yes, _boy._" The second word was said with vicious irony. "You are waging _war._"

Souji's eyebrows came together. "Okay, so…?"

"So take this seriously!" Kenta snapped and stood up to his full height, which still wasn't quite up to Souji's nose. "Your enemy has sent word of your resistance to the heart of their empire, and will soon begin amassing forces to deal with you once and for all. Nevermind that this conflict is fought over something as foolish and ephemeral as… _twintails,_ if you lose then Earth, your _home _will be at the mercy of these invaders! Forget your foolish schooling! Amass the forces and arms that you need to drive them off, and be prepared to commit not just your life, but your _future_ to winning! Abandon all else, and pursue victory at all costs! THIS IS WAR!"

Both Souji and Aika stood there in silence, shamefacedly hanging their heads.

Suddenly feeling weak from the sudden exertion, Kenta sank back into his chair. "Now go." He gave Souji one last glare. "I must speak to my granddaughter."

Souji only paused for long enough to give a respectful bow, before squeezing Aika's shoulder again and hurrying out.

There was a long moment's silence between Kenta and his star pupil. "You seem well, all things considered."

"Thank you, Grandpa."

"...Him?" Kenta grunted. "That's the boy you're in love with?"

"Yes." Aika answered without hesitation.

His face twisted with disgust. "He's weak. And stupid."

"He's not weak." Aika countered without hesitation. "He might seem strange to you, but he's never hesitated to fight for the things precious to him."

"He spends half his time as a little girl."

"I don't care."

Kenta grimaced. "I don't approve, not anymore."

"That's too bad, then." Aika murmured back, voice soft but resolved.

The old man sighed, before waving her off with a disgusted flick of his wrist. "Go."

For the second time that day, Aika walked away from someone she cared about with their issues not resolved.


	22. 22 A Moat of Fluff

As exhausting as Aika's day had already been it was still far from over. After the emotional reunions with Souji and her grandfather, not to mention the time spent doing battle in Nekorea and crawling around that enormous underground facility, she wanted nothing more than to go home and enjoy some hard earned leisure. Maybe she and Souji could just hang out for a while, and she could listen to him ramble on and on about twintails until her parents called her back for dinner. They could spend the last few days before the Summer Holidays ended with the other members of the Twintail club doing something stupid like fishing in a nearby river, or go to a movie together.

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of things she needed to take care of, including at least two more emotional reunions with Isabella and Erina, as well as figuring out some way to break the news to her family that she was Tailblue. She also needed to get Twoearle to open up about the problems she was having, as well as get her Tailsuit repaired. Thinking about it, maybe she didn't need to do all that today. Maybe this afternoon she could reassure Erina and Isabella she was alive and get her Tailsuit repaired, and tomorrow she could talk to Twoearle and her parents. Oh, and she needed to consult with everyone about a lot of other stuff as well, like maybe it was time for them to go on the offensive against the Elemerian ships that were in their atmosphere, or even maybe the Twintails should just go public with their secret identities. Basically, war stuff. They needed to talk about war stuff.

There she went, letting tomorrow's problems get the best of her again. _One thing at a time._ She reminded herself before returning to the secret base.

The reunion with Isabella went about as well as could be expected, with the younger girl clinging to Aika and bawling until she was able to calm herself down. Isabella might have tried to act composed and cool for her age, but in reality she was still only fourteen so Aika was willing to indulge her. Just after Isabella had dried her eyes and return to her usual self, Erina showed up and the whole process started again. Apparently, Erina crying set Isabella off as well, and she found herself trying to soothe both of them while Twoearle watched, bemused. All in all it took close to an hour for the excitement to die down, when after their tears were dried Isabella and Erina suddenly became incredibly energetic and demanded to hear all of Aika's story about what happened.

"You really defeated a whole army untransformed?" Erina's eyes were shining, as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Isabella, who looked just as fascinated.

"Not quite." Aika answered honestly. "My other form was basically fried, so I couldn't move or do anything while transformed, but the inertial dampeners on the suit were still working, so she was still bulletproof. Whenever I couldn't dodge their bullets I just transformed and waited until they needed to reload."

"That's so creative!" Erina clenched her hands excitedly.

"How many of them were there, senpai?" Isabella continued, eagerly.

Despite herself, Aika smiled as she started to count them up. "A hundred-ish soldiers, a few vehicles, one tank, and one helicopter."

"You really are a gorilla." Twoearle smirked from the back of the room.

"Don't be rude." Erina chided while at the same time as Isabella glared angrily.

It was great to see those two getting along, though there was almost a four year gap between them, and Isabella still seemed to think Erina was her age. _We should probably clear that up at some point…_

"So you're really okay?" Souji still seemed fretful.

"Not even a scratch." Aika promised him. "But I don't know how long it will take to repair the tailsuit."

"Speaking of which." The group turned their attention to the scientist who stood up. "I've been meaning to do some maintenance on everyone's suits for a while now, anyway. It probably won't be a good idea to take all of us out of commission at once, so maybe we should take these two at a time?"

"How long should this take?" Souji asked.

"For the red suit and yellow, probably just a few hours, but I'm not familiar with the pink suit, and the blue has been completely wrecked." She shrugged. "It could take days."

"Hmm…" Souji tapped his lip and glanced at Aika.

"We're currently down a warrior." She pointed out.

"Yeah…" He agreed with a nod. "I think the first thing we need is to get Blue back up and running, and then we can worry about updating."

"Alright." Twoearle agreed. "I can take these two at a time, though. Who wants the other?"

"If mine is going to take longer as well, why don't you get the big ones out of the way first?" Isabella suggested.

Erina frowned worriedly, and looked at Isabella. "But that would leave Catyu without anyone to defend it on their side of the portal? It can take us a little while to get over there when trouble starts."

"It can take a bit to get to the base just from the mansion." Isabella pointed out with a grumble.

"Alright…" Twoearle tapped her lip thoughtfully, before offering a solution. "We have the beds in the spaceship already set up, not to mention showers and a stocked kitchen. One of the active tail warriors could sleep on the other side. Just for the few days it takes to get Pink and Blue up and running again."

Erina perked up. "Like a sleepover?"

Despite her best efforts to seem nonchalant, Aika noticed Isabella's ears flickered excitedly at the suggestion too.

"That depends on the host." Souji answered, and looked at the younger girl. "She might prefer to sleep in her big manor you know?"

Once again, Erina's eyes were shining brightly and she looked expectantly at Isabella..

"Oh, I mean, uh, it would be rude of me not to join you in the Spaceship." She tried to play it cool, but her excitement was clear for everyone to see. "And obviously I can get the maids to prepare plenty of entertainment."

"Can we build a pillow fort?" Erina grabbed her hands and clasped them in front of her chest. "Please?"

"I'll uh, see if we have enough pillows."

If Aika had to guess, Isabella would probably buy the pillows if she didn't already have them and act like she'd dug them out of storage somewhere. "Sounds like you two will be having fun."

"Will you come too, Senpai?" Isabella asked, eagerly.

"Sorry." Aika shook her head. "I'm exhausted, and pillow fights sound a little uh, intense for me right now."

"Yeah, and if she threw a pillow at you it might break the sound barrier." Twoearle pointed out, smirking slightly.

"I'll throw one at you in a moment!" Aika snapped at her.

"Aika." Souji called her name, and she looked towards him. He made eye contact with her, before looking about the room at everyone else and clenching his fist. _Do we talk about our war plans now?"_

_No._ She shook her head and yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. _I'm too tired right now._

He nodded. _Later then._

Out of the corner of her eyes, Aika noticed Twoearle glancing between the two of them, jealousy written on her face. A twinge of guilt pricked at Aika, despite herself.

"Well, I'm gonna go to bed now." She announced to the room. "Sorry guys, but I'm exhausted."  
"Yeah, and I haven't slept either since, well…" Souji trailed off. "The bad news."

"I'll get started on things down here." Twoearle held out her hands to Isabella and Aika, and they handed over their tailsuits.

"Aren't you tired, too?" Erina asked, concerned. "Didn't you spend all of yesterday and last night searching?"

That was news to Aika. "She did?"

Twoearle looked faintly embarrassed and explained, "I needed to recover the suit, if nothing else."

"Ah." That made sense.

"Oh, don't pretend you weren't worried about Aika." Souji rolled his eyes.

Rather than react how anyone expected, Twoearle just glumly turned away. "I'm going to go get started on these." She turned and carried the tailsuits back into the lab, while speaking over her shoulder. "If I get too tired I'll just come up for a power nap."

While her back was turned, Souji and Aika exchanged glances with each other, both of them thinking the same thing. _We really need to talk to her._ And considering the recent fight between her and Aika, it probably needed to be soon.

_Tomorrow's problems._ Aika shook her head and reminded herself. Together, she Souji and Erina rode the elevator up to the surface together. They were silent for a while, the only sound they could hear being the dim humm of the machine rising upwards. "You seem to be getting along with Isabella." Aika began, looking to Erina.

"I think she thinks I'm younger than her." Erina admitted, worriedly touching her fingers together. "I'm not sure how to tell her that I'm eighteen. I don't want to embarrass her."

"Probably better to tell her sooner rather than later." Souji pointed. "The longer it lasts, the worse she'll feel." He smiled. "Maybe you could get her to call you 'Senpai' as well?"

"It'd be nice if she admired me like that." Erina admitted, shyly.

"Honestly, she'll probably just be happy to have a friend, again." Aika sighed. "The elemerians got to her other friends before she got her suit, and now they're not willing to hang out with her anymore."

"Oh, that's sad." A look of sympathy came over Erina's face.

"She got attached to you pretty fast." Souji looked at Aika.

"I think she was just lonely." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

Erina shook her head in disagreement. "It's a bit more than that, I think. It might be because you saved her so dramatically, at least a little bit."

"You think it's hero worship?" Souji asked.  
"...Sure, close enough." Erina glanced at Aika nervously, as if afraid to say more.

The elevator dinged open, and the three went their separate ways. Despite the fact that it was still the afternoon and the sun was still up, Aika wasted no time saying goodbye to the other two and heading out the front door. After a much needed shower to wash off some of the blood that was still clinging to her hair and skin, she carried out some much needed maintenance on her hair. She nearly fell asleep as she sat in front of the mirror, her grooming habits causing her to relax quickly. When Aika finally laid down and closed her eyes, she was asleep in one breath.

* * *

The entire bridge of the spaceship was paved with a layer of silk and fluffy down. The walls were made with unfurled futons that had been laid on their side, and bed sheets had been used to create something like hanging curtain, giving a door to the structure. Mikoto had offered to build it for them, but Erina felt like that would be defeat the purpose of it. Instead, her maid had simply stood in the hall, passing construction tools like pillowcases and blankets to the two as they requested them.

Wearing their pajamas, Isabella and Erina stood shoulder to shoulder and surveyed their work. To Erina's untrained eye, it looked like a mighty pillowfort and she was pleased with her efforts. "What do you think?"

"I don't know." Isabella shrugged and admitted. "I've never built one before."

"But it was fun, right?" Erina turned to look up at her.  
"Yeah." A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "I'm worried if we have a pillow fight we'll ruin it."

"Hmmm... I think we're supposed to have that in the morning, that way it's okay if we accidentally bump into it." That seemed logical to Erina at any rate.

"Oh, that makes sense." Isabella nodded, thoughtfully. "So what now?"

"...I think we go to bed?" Erian turned around and asked over her shoulder. "Mikoto. What traditionally happens at this stage of a sleepover?"

She bowed low. "My lady, normally a sleepover would happen inside the comfort of one's home, so a parent or an elder sibling would now interrupt to ask you to quiet down and go to sleep."

"Oh." Erina tapped her lip. "Okay, well then if you would please?"

"Of course my lady." Mikoto stood up and left the room, closing the door behind her. After few moments went by, she knocked on the door loudly and called out, "Would you girls knock it off?! I have work in the morning!"  
"Sorry, Ms Sakuragawa!" Isabella called back, before giggling and covering her mouth.

"Nice touch." Erina complemented her, before yelling out. "We'll be quiet, I promise!"  
"Goodnight!" Mikoto called back, before pretending to walk away, back down the hall by stomping her feet loudly. "How was that, my lady?"

"Excellent!" Erina clapped her hands excitedly. "What next? Do we go to bed?"

Mikoto explained through the door. "Traditionally you would, but instead of going to sleep you're instead supposed to lay awake and gossip with each other."

"Oh, that sounds fun." Erina smiled brightly.

Excitedly, the two of them climbed into their beds and lay flat on their backs, staring at the ceiling with their heads close to each other from opposite directions.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Erina started.  
"No, not right now."

"Right now? So you've had one?"

"Yeah, just at the start of the year I was dating a boy named Insuke." Isabella sighed. "But I didn't really like him."

"Oh. Then why did you go out with him?"

"Because he asked, and I thought it might upset Daddy." She groaned and covered her face with a pillow. "I did a lot of stupid stuff because I thought it might make him mad."

"Oh, that's no good." Erina glanced over at her sadly. "How are things between you and your father now?"

"Um… They're better." Isabella sighed. "We've started talking again, which is nice."

"That sounds nice." Erina agreed. "What about the rest of your family, are you getting along with them?"

"No, they hate me."

"I'm sure that's not true!" Erina rushed to protest.

"It is! My mother was dad's mistress while he was still married to his first wife, so all my brothers hate us both."

"Oh, no." Erina breathed out as she covered her mouth. Despite her youthful appearance, she wasn't naive about such things. Among society's upper class, where power and money changed hands with arranged marriages, flings of passion were common and the results of them were often painful and messy. Her mother had certainly never been above the occasional dalliance, though no children had been born as a result.

"I didn't make things any better these last few years." Isabella admitted. "And I bet my father has another family out there I haven't met yet, too." She gave a grunt of frustration and kicked her leg. "He's really frisky for a fifty year old man."

"At least that means he's fairly healthy." Erina pointed out.

"...What about you?" Isabella turned her head to look at her. "Your family sounds a lot stricter than mine is."

That made Erina silent for a moment. "It's…" She began and trailed, unsure if she should say, 'Not too bad.' Or maybe, 'A little difficult.' She felt that both were true. "I respect my mother." She started.

"Buuuut." Isabella drew out the vowel.

"But." Erina agreed softly. "And I love her, but... Sometimes it feels like she holds me to a standard no one could ever live up to."

"Like what?"

"...My grades have to be perfect, for one thing, which takes an enormous amount of time just studying alone. Then there's being Student Council President, which I didn't really want to be, but she demanded I take the office, that takes a lot of time. She expects me to get engaged, and very soon, so there's constant marriage interviews."

"At your age?" Isabella gaped, and Erina continued, not noticing her shocked expression.

"I don't have to be the best athletically, but I absolutely have to stay healthy, so the staff is careful to control my diet and make sure I get enough exercise." She breathed out. "It's only thanks to Mikoto that I have any time for my hobbies at all, though of course she never lies to my mother."

"What about the twintail club?"

Erina glanced up at her. "What about it?"

"That sounds like a crazy schedule, so how do you have time to visit the club?"  
"Oh." She blushed, hotly. "Um… My mother allows me to attend the club, because she thinks I'm… uh, I'm… working towards s-s-seducing Souji."

Isabella sat up and turned to stare at her in disbelief.

"What is it?"

"Souji? Really?"

"What?" Erina covered her face in embarrassment. "She wants me to marry as soon as possible."

"And… do you _like_ Souji?" Isabella continued.  
The question brought Erina up short. All she could do was nod and not make eye contact.

"You and Senpai too, huh?" Isabella groaned and lay back down. "Why, though? What's so great about him, anyway?"

"He's a nice person."

"Not nice enough to notice how you or Senpai feel." Isabella pointed out, before bitterly adding, "And she's _terrible _at hiding it."

"...He can be a little dense." Erina admitted. "But he really does care about people."

Isabella grunted with annoyance. "He's not even really handsome, he looks more attractive as a girl than he does as a guy."

Erina didn't reply.

"And he's not even rich!" Isabella continued to complain. "Senpai is soooo much cooler than he is!" Her voice became a low, almost whisper. "What does he have that I don't? Some people just don't know how lucky they have it."

"That's not fair." Erina protested and the two of them fell into silence for a minute.

"Why is your mother so desperate for you to get married, anyway?"

"So I can succeed the clan leadership smoothly." Erina explained. "I don't think my family is as rich as yours, but we're really old money. Our ancestors were samurai. Other branches in my family will look for any excuse to have their own children inherit and usurp the main line. If they can argue that I'm unable to have suitable offspring or something like that, they'll use that as ammunition against me."

"That sounds terrible." Isabella sympathised. "Why do you even want to inherit in the first place?"

"W-well, because my mother only has one child, so there's no one else."

"That's why you _have_ to inherit, not why you _want_ to."

"I don't want to disappoint her." Erina murmured.

"But do you actually want all that responsibility?"

"..."

"It sounds like a lot." Isabella yawned and rubbed her eyes. "But maybe you should think about if you even want to do this?" She rolled over onto her side, facing away from Erina.

"I want to do it." Erina answered firmly.

"Okay." Isabella sounded disbelieving.

"I do." Erina insisted.

"Sure."

With a sigh, Erina rolled over so she was facing away from Isabella. The two lay in silence, until Erina heard the sound of Isabella's breath slowly even out, and found herself growing sleepy as well. _I do._ She insisted in her own mine. _I want to lead the clan... Don't I?_ The uncertainty in her heart fed into her dreams, and she found herself tossing and turning all night.


	23. 23 pls no bully

In Twoearle's expert opinion as its creator, the blue tailsuit was completely trashed. If asked for further details, she would explain that it was more ash than suit at this point. There were parts of it that could be salvaged, like the inertial dampeners, but most of it was going to need to be replaced entirely. Sighing as she went down the list of components, Twoearle couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness at the loss of her old suit.

"It's a miracle she's alive at all." Twoearle murmured to herself. The only thing that had allowed Aika to survive the bomb was the combination of the crystallizing gel the suit had deployed over her twintails, thus freezing them safely in place, and the lucky survival of the inertial dampeners that somehow weren't destroyed by the heat of the nuclear explosion. If Aika's hair had burned away, and her twintails been destroyed, then the suit would have untransformed right there, and she would have died instantly. If the inertial dampeners had failed, then her crystalised twintails would have broken off when she hit the ground, she would have untransformed and died.

All the more mundane electronic components had been fried by the EMP, which explained why her communicator went down. Without even a spark of power there would have been no way to undo the transformation if someone else hadn't kindly inserted a pair of double AA's into the battery port.

Almost every other part of the suit was completely ruined, though. Even the excellion shorts. Twoearle wrinkled her nose as she thought over just how hard it would be to repair all this. At least she could do it with materials that she could source here on Earth, but first she'd have to get the money to buy them.

"Oh, well." She sighed to herself, standing up from her desk and making her way to a locked cabinet in the garage that was marked 'samples'. "Time to dig into my reserves, I guess." Once again, she reached into her cleavage and dug out her set of fuzzy keys.

When she unlocked the cabinet, she found inside a collection of items that would shock and horrify her friends. There were four shelves in the cabinet, each marked by one name: Souji, Sora, Erina, and Aika. The contents of each shelf looked much the same to an untrained eye, but there were differences if you paid attention. On each row was small containers of fingernails, used tissues, hair samples, swabs of saliva, and other even more unmentionable things retrieved from the garbage. The paper bin in Souji's room had been a particular goldmine of useful samples.

"Running low on used underwear and old bathwater." Twoearle grunted, before closing the cabinet. After sitting back down in her computer chair, she brought up an incognito tab on her browser and loaded up a page on U-bay. Soon there was a series of new items on that website, auctions selling things like 'Authentic Tail Red Hair!' and, '100% Genuine Tail Blue Used Gym Shorts!' Though Tail Yellow and Blue were much less popular than Tailred, who had a lot more universal appeal, there were still people who excited by and interested in them. Strange and deviant people, but people with credit cards and access to the internet nonetheless. Currently there seemed to be a bidding war over one of Tail Blue's used gym towels between two users named 'IWANTGIRLSTOSTEPONME1232' and 'number1NKdictator' that was getting pretty extravagant. Twoearle was just setting up a page for Tail Yellow's old handkerchief when there was a knock on her door.

She jumped in surprise, immediately closed the browser and turned off the computer, before dusting herself off and walking over to the door. Standing on the other side, she found Aika and Souji. "Yes?"

Souji smiled at her cheerily. "Just came to check on the suit, and see how the repairs are going."

"Ah, hmmm…" Twoearle tapped her lip. "Not well?"

Aika looked worried. "Is it that bad?"

"Oh, yeah." Twoearle assured her, before walking over to where the tailsuit bracer was currently suspended in the prongs of a device that was scanning it with blue lasers. "It's unbelievable that you survived at all, and that's not going into your stand off with Korean army."

"Nekorean." Aika corrected, frowning sadly. "Will you able to fix it?"

"..." Twoearle bit her lip. "No. At this point the best I can do might be to extract the twintail elemera and just build a new suit."

The disappointment was obvious on Aika's face, as she looked down at the suit. "Are you sure there's nothing you can do?"

"...I want to say yes, but it's just impossible." Twoearle looked up and saw the expression on Aika's face, and found that she felt the same way. She didn't want this suit to be lost either. "Maybe I can break it down to its base components, smelt down the metal and reforge it. Some parts of it will just have to be thrown out, but at least the new suit will mostly be made of the same material as the old one. I can make it pretty much the exact same." It would be a lot more effort to go through than just sourcing new materials, but maybe it was worth it to see the old blue suit back in action.

"I would like that." Aika smiled at her. "Thank you, Twoearle."

"Um, I have a question." Souji turned to the mad scientist. "What exactly are you even a scientist of? I'm not an expert, you seem to do a lot of engineering, but I remember you saying you weren't an engineer?"

"Oh… Well, most of this is self taught." Twoearle looked around the room at what she had built, and she imagined it looked pretty professional to the untrained eye. "I was actually a qualified biochemist, believe it or not."

"Really?" Aika sounded quite cynical.

Twoearle shrugged. "I don't want to brag, but I am a genius, okay? Possibly the smartest to ever live on Locale."

Aika crossed her arms. "I don't believe that."

Twoearle looked at her, disbelievingly. "Is it really so hard to believe? Has anyone else ever invented half the stuff I have?"

"No, I meant I don't believe the part about you not wanting to brag."

Twoearle chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "Okay, you got me."

"Where did learn you all this stuff, then?" Aika pulled up a chair, and sat across from her.

Souji did the same, hopping up onto an empty desk and swinging his feet above the ground.

"Mostly from the Elemerians." Twoearle admitted, turning around in her chair. "I was just about to turn sixteen when the Elemerians launched their first attack on Locale, and everyone was helpless to stop it. There was footage on the news of them flipping tanks and knocking over aircraft, while joking and riffing off one liners all the time. Somehow in the fight, one of their attribute extraction rings got sent flying and 'just happened' to land in my backyard. It even had a convenient little USB port on the side, so when I hacked into it, and found the plans for how to build a tailsuit, and all that stuff, of course I jumped on it." Her eyes turned to the blue suit where it sat in the scanner. "It even had two Twintail Elemera inside it, ready to be built into the suit."

"I had wondered where you got them from." Aika admitted.  
"Where were you living at the time?" Souji asked.

_Oh…_ Twoearle glanced at him, then at Aika. That's what this was. The two of them hadn't really come down here to check on the repairs, they were here to try and get her to open up a bit more about her past. She grimaced and turned back to the computer. "I was living basically by myself. I never knew my mother, and dad was busy as a researcher too, and I almost never saw him."

In her monitors reflection she saw Souji and Aika exchange looks. They had one of their silent conversations with just a few facial expressions, and reached some kind of resolve. Both of them turned to Twoearle at the same time.

Souji opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.

"Listen, guys." She exaggerated a yawn. "I'm just on the back end of an all nighter, and not to mention all that time I spent searching for Aika. If you don't mind, I'm gonna head to bed and catch up on some sleep."

"Oh." Souji looked crestfallen.

"It's okay." Aika quickly spoke up for him. "We can talk later."

"That's fine." Twoearle stood up and headed for the door, but paused as she left. "Oh, and Souji. Don't forget to trade places with Erina." She reminded him. "We still need someone on the other side until the pink suit's updates are installed."

"Right."

With that said, Twoearle hurried away.

* * *

Despite a two year age difference, Sora was a few inches shorter than Isabella, she couldn't help but note. The younger girl watched her step through the portal with a cold look on her face, and Sora felt particularly unwelcome. As the long staring match went on, Sora couldn't help but notice the incredible twin drill tails the younger Catian was sporting. After spending so much time as a girl, she understood just how expensive and labor intensive those would be to maintain. As far as twintails went, it was a far cry from the simple beauty of Aika's, or the elegant refinement of Erina's, but a bold and challenging statement. These were twintails that loudly shouted to the world, 'I'm here!'

Or something like that.

"Hi, Isabella. I came as a girl." Sora fidgeted uncomfortably under the long stare. "Like you asked."

"Come on then." Isabella muttered, turning around and walking deeper into the secret base.

Behind her, Sora hurried to catch up, lugging her overnight bag over one shoulder and seeming to struggle a little with the weight.

"How long have you and Senpai known each other?" Isabella asked over her shoulder, as they headed up the ramp to the spaceship.

"Um, our parents were neighbors and friends before we were born. So forever I guess." Sora answered, looking around at the interior of the ship curiously, before her eyes settled on Isabella. "Um, why do you only call Aika that?"

"Call her what?"

"'Senpai.'"

Isabella turned on her heel and glared down at her. "Do you want me to call _you_ that?"

"No!" Sora shrank in on herself. _Wasn't Isabella supposed to be the shy, quiet type?_ But then again, those were definitely not the twintails of a withdrawn and silent person.

Isabella maintained her challenging stare for a few moments longer, while Sora tried to avoid her gaze, before with a dismissive, "Hmph," she turned and made her way deeper into the ship. The two of them lapsed into silence as they laid out their futons together. As she was preparing her things, Isabella couldn't help but notice the confused and uncertain looks Sora kept shooting at her whenever she thought Isabella wasn't looking.

"What?" She snapped after the half a dozenth time she caught Sora.

"N-nothing." Sora quickly defended herself.

"Then why are you looking at me?"

"Er… You're really different then from how I thought you were." Sora murmured.

"What do you mean?" Isabella stared directly at her again, and once again Sora hunched her shoulders nervously, and shrank in on herself.

"Aika told me you were, uh, different then how you're acting." She scratched the back of her neck nervously, an action which caused her chest to strain her shirt even more.

Despite her best effort to maintain her scowl, the tips of Isabella's lips began to turn upwards in the beginnings of a goofy smile, before she got it back under control. "Senpai and I are friends." She answered by way of an explanation.

"Oh." Sora nodded once in understanding. "And I guess you just don't know the rest of us that well, yet, huh?"

"Hmf." Isabella dismissed. "I get along fine with Erina."

"Oh." A disappointed note entered Sora's voice.

After that, the two of them sat down in silence, and it wasn't long before Isabella took out her phone to start playing Armoured Galz. Sora hadn't brought much to entertain herself, expecting Isabella to be a good host based on Erina's glowing recommendation. "I guess it's just me that she doesn't like." Sora murmured to herself, lowly.

"Hm?" Isabella looked up. "Did you say something?"

"No." Sora cringed and stared at the floor.

The room was quiet for a long time after that, expect for the beeps and catchphrases of Isabella's game.

After thirty minutes, Sora still didn't know what to do. The atmosphere in the room was so painfully awkward and she still wasn't sure what she'd done wrong. Anytime she wriggled or moved, Isabella would skewer her with a glare and demand to know what was wrong, making Sora feel like she had to insist everything was fine even though she was bored and somewhat stressed.

A painful hour of this passed before Isabella got tired of her game.

"You look bored."

"Uh, no I'm fine." Sora instinctively tried to reassure her.

"Don't lie to me." Isabella scowled.

"I-I'm not lying."

"So then you want to keep sitting here like this?"

_Please no._ "I need to use the bathroom." Sora excused herself and stood up. "I'll be right back."

"Don't fall in." Isabella turned her head back down to her phone.

Obviously it was just an excuse to escape. Sora didn't really need to go to the bathroom, although she took the chance to wash her face and hands, and wait around in their for another few minutes because anything was better than that atmosphere. After taking as long as she could justify to herself, Sora returned to the main room to find Isabella setting up a chair and bringing over what looked like a heavy toolbox.

"Uh… What's this?" Sora asked.

"You were bored right?" Isabella replied. "And this is a sleepover, isn't it?"  
"I didn't say I was bored."

Isabella ignored her. "Do you know what happens at sleepovers?"

"Um…" In Souji's experiences as a guy, he had only ever had a handful of male friends, and he'd never once stayed over at one of their houses. He had some dim recollections of staying at the Tsube house once or twice when he was much younger, and similar to his other memories from then, they involved a lot of being chased around and wrestling with Aika, and always losing. "I don't think so, not a normal girl's sleep over at least."

Isabella eyed him suspiciously for a moment. "Well, there's a few different things we can do on a sleepover, but I think we should do something I bet a boy like you has never done before."

"Like what?" Sora eyed the toolbox suspiciously.

Isabella smirked and unclipped the top of it, revealing rows and rows of blush, liners, mascara, lipsticks and other tools of beautification. "A makeover."

"O-oh." Sora hesitated, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Sit down." Isabella patted the chair in front of her, giving Sora a smile that never quite reached her eyes.

"But I'm a guy?" Sora protested, weakly.

"You don't look like much of a man to me." Isabella grunted. "Come on, what's the point of being a girl half the time if you don't get to enjoy the fun parts of being one?"

"...Alright." Souji conceded nervously, allowing himself to be gently but insistently tugged into the chair.

"Now hold still." Isabella smirked, reaching into the toolkit, and selecting a brush and powder. "First we lay the foundation..."

* * *

It was a peaceful night in downtown Pyongyang, partly due to the lovely summer weather, but mostly due to the violently enforced curfew. Anyone found on the streets without good reason would be immediately detained, and as a direct result, the city was quiet. Peaceful. Safe. There weren't even rats, cats, or birds in view. After all, for those creatures to eat there needed to be food for them to scavenge, and their certainly wasn't any of that around.

To conserve electricity, no street lights were active, except for the spotlights of the watchtowers scattered about the place. The only movement that could be seen where the patrols of armed soldiers, prowling from street to street in search of any spies or dissidents who would dare to trespass the wonderful night in Pyongyang.

They didn't find any spies, though thanks to the darkened skyline, one of them was able to spot something quite strange; a light in the heavens. There, visible among the stars was a glowing ball that seemed to be growing larger, and larger. One of them soon sent out the alert, and all across the city crowds of loyal soldiers watched as what they feared to be a nuke from the foul capitalist pigs of America rushed towards them. Word soon came down from command, though, and it became clear the glow wasn't caused by a weapon, the trajectory was wrong. Soon its landing site was calculated, and rapid response units were set up to immediately secure wherever it landed.

The meteor crashed into the suburbs of Pyongyang, where the streets weren't paved with asphalt, but were rather long stretches of compacted dirt, made by countless feet and vehicles passing over. The explosive sound of its landing brought curious onlookers out of their homes, only for them to immediately rush inside and hide as they heard the approaching roar of army vehicles. Curfew was still in effect after all.

Soldiers jumped out of their various trucks, circling around the smoking crater, and many couldn't help but notice its strange surface. This was definitely not a meteor. It looked to be made from some kind of golden tinted metal, but with a mysterious white enameling covering it. In addition, there were obvious joints across its surface. As the soldiers watched, there was a hiss and one edge of it folded up, causing them to raise their guns with fear. White fog clouded their vision, as from out of the wrecked space pod stumbled a silhouette.

Coughing, and apparently limping, a beautiful woman emerged into the spotlight, blinded by the lights from above so shielded her eyes. The soldiers saw her, though. She was tall, perhaps six foot, with a slim, delicate figure and a long pair of thin, beautiful twintails stretching from her head to almost her ankles. She was wearing a white loincloth and chest wrapping, adorned with various gold and silver weavings that did nothing to disguise the shape of her hips or chest.

"Please!" She cried, tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks. "Please, someone help! I need to speak to the Twintail warriors!"

Around her gracefully thin neck was a flowery pink cravat.


	24. 24 The Red Parade

Isabella felt quite cheerful that morning, as she stepped through the portal from Catyu to earth. The night she had spent with Erina had been a lot of fun, and the night she spent with Sora had been great too. For her at least. Thinking back on it, she didn't do anything too out there, but certainly there were a number of things she definitely didn't ever want Senpai to see.

At first Isabella had only intended to take a photo of Sora in clown makeup, but temptation had struck, and she found herself spitefully pressuring him into trying on an increasingly bizarre series of outfits. After that, Isabella had a flash of inspiration and she texted her maids to come and cook dinner for them in the secret base without giving warning to Sora. When the maids came in, Sora had been standing there in gaudiest, worst imaginable gyaru style makeup with white lips, a fake tan, and thick layers of mascara turning her otherwise pretty features garish and transvestite-like, while wearing nothing but a boob window sweater and black lace stockings with garter belts.

Isabella had of course acted surprised and apologetic, while secretly taking photos of the scene and laughing inside. The only saving grace for Sora was that she hadn't looked in a mirror yet, so she didn't know just how badly Isabella had defaced her, so she wasn't as embarrassed as she could have been. At least until Sora went to the bathroom for the first time that night, and was so shocked by her appearance that she spent almost half an hour hiding in the shower.

It had been a lot of fun for Isabella to get revenge on Sora like that, and she even had a few amusing photos from the affair that she might be willing to show Aika, but she absolutely didn't want what happened to be viewed in full by the other warriors.

In her heart she knew Sora didn't really deserve to be treated like that, but in the end it was just harmless fun, right? Besides, that's what she got for being so easy to bully. Senpai doesn't really need some loser like Souji around, after all.

Isabella found the door to Twoearle's workshop open, and the woman herself inside, sitting in front of her computer. Though she never quite let her guard down around the mad scientist, enough time had passed that Isabella thought Twoearle probably wasn't an Elemerian anymore. Probably. She still didn't like her, though. It took a while for Isabella to put her finger on it, but eventually she realised why: Twoearle was creepy as hell.

Somehow she was always able to move completely soundlessly, and she had the nerve to act like it was an accident whenever she crept up on someone. Human ears weren't as sensitive as Isabella's, so she could only guess Twoearle had some kind of technology that allowed her to sneak about the way she did.

"Ah, there you are." The light the computer screen cast on Twoearle's face changed colour as she very quickly alt tabbed, before standing up.

The other thing that was incredibly disturbing about Twoearle was her constant surveillance. Aika had even warned Isabella that she put cameras everywhere, constantly recorded everything and even reviewed the footage, but that somehow skipped her mind when she'd decided to, uh, _play_ with Souji a little last night. It was okay right now, because there wasn't a live feed from one end of the portal to the other, but Isabella would definitely have to delete the ship's footage when she went back.

"You're finished with my suit?"

"Yup, yup." Twoearle smiled cheerily, unlocking what looked almost like an electronic display case with her key and removing the pink bracer from inside. "Catch!" She tossed it across the room, and Isabella caught it. "It's mostly like the other suits I made, though lacking, uh, certain features. I've added all the stuff I have on my suits to it, so now you can enjoy the excellion shorts like everyone else does."

"What are those?" Isabella slipped the device over her wrist.

"Very useful." Twoearle answered, vaguely. "But not polite to talk about with a minor. Ask Aika if you have to."

Isabella frowned. "Is there anything in the update you can actually talk to me about?"

"Yeah, yeah." Twoearle waved her hand. "There's now a module in their that you can use to convert the power of Elemera Orbs into useful abilities, like Aika's flight module for example."

"I don't have any orbs, though?" Isabella frowned.

"Well, whenever you next defeat an Elemerian, you should be able to use whatever they leave behind. Some of them aren't as useful as others, but anyway. Maybe your 'senpai' will let you borrow one." She said 'senpai' in an exaggeratedly childish tone, and Isabella narrowed her eyes. "Oh, don't be like that, it's just a little fun. Besides, I'm sure you'd like an excuse to hang see her, anyway."

"Any other features you'd like to tell me about?"

"Yeah, well there's actually two Elemera modules now, so you can combine the effects of two different orbs, which is the new thing I want to install on everyone's suits. Uses a lot of energy, though. It's definitely a one off."

"Combine them how?" Isabella felt frustration well up inside her. "I don't even know what they do individually."

"Um…" Twoearle tapped her lip. "So like, you can only combine them by theme, but not effect. I just made it, so I don't really know how it works, yet. Just throw whatever at the wall and see what sticks, I guess."

"Theme?" Isabella repeated, obviously baffled.

"Anyway, let Aika know that it'll be a few more days on her tailsuit the next time you see her." She waved Isabella away and turned back to her computer.

Apparently dismissed, Isabella walked towards the door scowling. _Stupid, creepy, wierdo._ She grumbled internally as she crossed the catapult room and came to the portal _Figure it out yourself, but don't worry that it might explode._ Just as she was about to step through back to her homeworld, a red light flashed and a loud alarm went off.

Isabella hesitated for a second, before rushing back into the catapult room, at the same time that Twoearle came from her lab on the other side. "What's going on?" Isabella asked.

"Elemerian attack." Twoearle answered.

_Good chance to get my own Elemera modules, anyway._ With a brief flash of light, Isabella transformed into Tailpink and moved towards the catapult.

"Wait!" Twoearle shouted at her suddenly. "Don't go just yet."

"Why not?" Isabella turned to face her.

"This can't be a coincidence." Disbelief leaked into Twoearle's tone and she shook her head. "The Elemerian is in North Korea."

"What?" Not wanting to get struck with a nuclear weapon Senpai had been, Isabella backed away a few steps from the catapult. "I'm guessing that's like Earth's version of North Nekorea?"

For some reason that made Twoearle roll her eyes, but she nodded. "Yeah, and according to the energy reading it's a really powerful Elemerian, too. Definitely officer class."

"I guess we just wait for Senpai and the others to arrive."

"'Senpai and the others'?" Twoearle repeated absently, still focussed on the screen. "Usually it's 'Tailred and the others'."

"So what?" Isabella snapped back.

"Just shows where your priorities are, I guess." Isabella grumbled. "Anyway, according to what I'm reading, the Elemerian is alone and it's not attacking anyone, either."

"Do you have footage?"

"Not yet." She frowned at something. "That's... weird. How the hell can that…?" Twoearle pushed a button on the console and there was the sound of a communicator clicking on. "Red, Blue, and Yellow. Are you guys on your way?"

"We're all in the elevator now." Came back Souji's voice over the device.

Twoearle glanced over at Isabella. "All three of you?"

"I'm here." Aika's voice confirmed.

"Me too." Erina replied.

A look of complete bafflement came over Twoearle's face, and she turned of the communicator.

"What is it?" Isabella asked, a strange feeling of worry settling in her gut.

"Um…" Twoearle scratched the side of her head. "According to this, there's already a tailsuit warrior, there?"

"But the others are in the elevator?"

"I know." She bit her lip.

"Okay, so who's that, then?" Isabella looked at the screen.

"...I have no absolutely no idea." Twoearle admitted, and the room was filled with the sound of her fingers on the keyboard again. "Let's see if I can get a view with the satellite…"

* * *

Orchidmantisguildy had to fight to keep from chuckling. It was bad practice for an Elemerian who was specialised at infiltration to break out into maniacal laughter; apparently that was a dead give away to most humans of your ill intentions. But still, it was hard for the Elemerian not to pleased when a plan came together so smoothly and perfectly, with almost no effort.

Currently disguised as a woman, Orchidmantis stood there in some kind of traditional, local robes, apparently called a 'hanbok', waving her hand and smiling brightly as tears of joy and gratitude rolled down her face. All an act of course. Orchidmantisguildy was nothing if not a master thespian. She stood atop a balcony, many shorter men in military uniforms stood around her waving as well, though somehow their smiles seemed a little more forced than you might expect.

Below them, many columns of soldiers marched in a line, accompanied by tanks and trucks bearing massive rockets. Their uniforms varied from officer to linemen, but they all bore the distinctive red star of North Korea. At Orchidmantisguildy's side stood Kim's body double, short enough that his head only come up to Orchidmantishuildy's shoulder, and chubby enough that his waist was easily double the size of her willowy figure, but the supreme leader himself was mysteriously absent.

Aside from the Orchidmantisguildy's mysterious presence, an outsider would be forgiven for thinking this was just another one of the Hermit Kingdom's countless and meaningless military parades, but this time it was different. Standing atop a stage being towed by four columns of chanting soldiers, was a little girl in twintails. Very little. She would not have looked out of place in a kindergarten, smiling happily and throwing at kisses at crowds of confused onlookers. Her pure white hair was done up in a small, curly pair of twintails, pigtails specifically. She was dressed in a leotard with armoured gauntlets and metal boots that came to her ankles, but with what looked like a miniature military uniform over the top of it.

If someone hadn't been paying attention to world news recently, they might be confused as to why she was there, but for everyone else it was a sudden and terrifying realisation. That day the world would tremble as one when they realised that North Korea had its own twintail warrior. Orchidmantisguildy fought down her evil laugh, and settled for adjusting her pink cravat instead.

* * *

"What the hell is going on?" Souji said aloud what he imagined everyone else was already probably thinking.

All the tailsuit warriors were in the secret base, watching the broadcast on the large screen, though their reactions were very different.

Erina looked saddened as she uttered, "That poor little girl. Do you think she's being lied to?"

"Is she even a real tailsuit warrior?" Aika asked grimmly, glancing at Twoearle for the answer.

"Oh, she's so cuuute." Twoearle gushed, wiping a line of drool from the corner of her mouth.

A vein throbbed on Aika's head, and she reached out to dig her thumb and forefinger into Twoearle's neck.

"Ow! Okay, okay, okay!" Twoearle instantly tapped three times on Aika's thigh. "According to the censors she's wearing a real tailsuit."

"She might not even be a little girl, then." Aika pointed out, releasing Twoearle and glancing at Souji. "She could be someone like Souji."

"Where would they even find someone with a strong twintail attribute in North Korea?" Souji asked in disbelief. "Don't they have like, thirteen legal hairstyles or something?"

On the screen, a matronly woman in traditional korean garb announced something with a warm, proud smile. As she spoke, japanese subtitles appeared below her, though the tailsuits were perfectly capable of translating for the warriors. "With this, we are pleased to announce one new hairstyle to those approved by our wise party. Women of all ages across our glorious land may enjoy this new double tailed style."  
"Well, okay." Souji grimaced. "By my point still stands, right? Where did they find someone with enough twintail attribute to form an Elemera?"

Twoearle gasped, suddenly turning pale.

"What?" Souji asked as he and Aika glanced at her.

"N-n-nothing." She stuttered, squirming nervously as she sweated and looked about the room.

"What did you do?" Aika challenged her, eyes narrowing.

"Me? I didn't do anything, what are you talking about?" Twoearle giggled nervously.

"You know something about this!" Aika accused.

"I mean, not really?" Twoearle admitted. "But I did sell some stuff to someone with a North Korean IP address."

"What stuff?"

"Uh, like, nothing you could make a twinsuit out of, that's for certain." Twoearle scratched the back of her head. "I didn't even sell anything with a battery, so… I can't possibly be responsible for this?"

"I can't help but notice you didn't answer the question directly." Aika growled.

"Eh-heh. Heh-heh-eh…"

"I figured it out." Isabella suddenly announced over her shoulder. "Pause it and rewind."

"Oh, look at that, I'm needed elsewhere." Twoearle hurried over to the controls and twisted a few knobs and dials."

"There! Right there!" Isabella stepped forward to point at the screen. "Zoom in and pause on that lady."

The footage stopped on a tall, beautiful women in a Hanbok, though for some reason she was wearing a bizarre, pink, western style cravat over her dress.

"That's Orchidmantisguildy." Isabella pronounced. "That's how they got a tailsuit."

"Are you sure?" Souji asked.

"Yeah, absolutely. He wore that stupid thing whenever he was disguised as a human, and he only took it off when he betrayed me, just before I was saved by Senpai." Aika put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Isabella gave her a small grateful smile. "No one else would wear something so ugly, anyway."

"It might be related to his Elemera." Twoearle speculated. "There's a good chance that it's what allows him to disguise himself as a human."

"So what do we do, then?" Erina asked. "In Tokubetsu shows, the bad guys often try to influence politicians towards corruption, but… I mean, North Korea is already awful?"

"I don't know what his plans are, but they're definitely not good for us." Souji folded his arms. "And the more time we give him, the worse it gets."

Erina worriedly chewed her finger. "But last time we went into North Korea-"

"North Nekorea." Twoearle corrected.

Erina continued. "-North Nekorea they fired a nuke."

"I have a solution for that." Twoearle answered. "It's actually pretty easy to make, we already have the technology, I just didn't have the time to prepare it last time. Basically, I just need something to let the spacejump catapult lock onto the missile and teleport it out of the Earth's atmosphere. One of you will have to carry it closer to the bomb, but you can do it with the ribbon Elemera."

"How long do you think it will take you to make it?" Souji asked.

"Maybe a few hours. It's really not that complicated. Think like a big laser pointer."

"Alright, sounds like a plan." Souji scratched his chin, before looking at Aika. "You're gonna have sit this one out, I'm sorry."

"I know." Aika frowned, glumly.

"Just until your suit gets repaired." Souji reassured her, before looking at Isabella and Erina. He considered them both for a second. "Pink is going to have to run missile interference." He decided after a moment. "Yellow just doesn't have the patience or self control for it."

"Sorry." Erina looked at the floor.

"Lame. I wanted to be there to take down Orchidmantisguildy." Isabella frowned.

"I'm sorry, but you're the only one I can trust to handle it right now."

"Yeah, I know."

"In the meantime." Souji turned to look at Twoearle. "Can you keep locked onto Orchidmantisguildy?"

"Yes." Twoearle reassured. "As long as he doesn't go underground or something."

"Alright, that's our plan then." He looked at Erina. "We take this seriously from the start. We catapult in, defeat Orchidmantisguildy, and catapult out."

"What about the new Twintail Warrior?" Aika asked.

"Once Orchidmantisguildy reveals his true form, they'll definitely join us." Souji said with confidence.

"Yeah, I agree a hundred percent." Twoearle nodded confidently. "Anyone with a strong love of twintails isn't going to be able to abide by the Elemerians threatening to steal that attribute from them." She stated with certainty, before turning and walking into her lab. "One of you stay here and keep an eye on things while I get to building."


	25. 25 Price Break After The First Million

There wasn't much for them to do to get ready, other than wait for Twoearle to finish her 'big laser pointer'. The warriors watched the footage and talked among themselves until the mad scientist emerged from her lab with a device the size of a rifle that had a trigger and a small hollow on the front, which she handed to Isabella.

"Just keep it pointed at the bomb, and I'll be able to grab them with the space jump catapult."

"Sounds easy." Isabella slung it over her shoulder.

"Here." Aika handed her the Ribbon Elemera Orb. "This is a good one, so I'll want it back."

"No problem." She inserted it into the slot that opened in her wrist. "Anything else?"  
"No, that's it." Souji transformed into Tailred and turned to Erina. "Are you ready?"  
For her answer, she simply transformed into Tailyellow.

"Alright." Tailred breathed out one last time, before walking into the catapult and disappearing. When she emerged, she found herself standing in a luxuriously decorated bedroom of all places. There was a large canopy bed, with thin lace curtains and red silk sheets. At the foot of the bed were two young women clad in very little. Both of them had their hands tied behind their backs. At the door were two armed guards, who pointed their rifles at Tailred and Tailyellow. For some reason, the white haired little girl was also in the room, laying on her back in bed as another beautiful woman offered her a bowl of chocolate coated strawberries.

"What the hell…" Tailred gaped.

"Tailred?" She sat up in her bed, suddenly, knocking the treats to the floor. Beaming brightly, she clapped her hands together excitedly. "Oh, wow!"

Used to this sort of reaction, Red wasn't caught off guard by it, though she did find herself pausing with disbelief when she noticed that one of the tied up girls was wearing a pink cravat. "Orchidmantisguildy?" She asked, disbelievingly.

"Who?" Tailwhite asked.

Orchidmantisguildy feigned surprise. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

"What is this?" Red asked, looking around the room again.

"I'm such a huuuuge fan!" White squealed, jumping off the bed and running over to hug her hero. "You're so cooool!" She was much shorter than even Red, so her arms were wrapped around the hero's waist.

"W-wow! I'll just go get refreshments for our guest!" Orchidmantisguildy visibly swallowed, standing up and moving towards the door, only for the newly appeared Yellow to block her path.

"Just take his stupid cravat!" Pink's voice came through their communicators. "Reveal who he really is!"

"You mean an alien?" White asked, peeking around Red to see what was happening. "I already know that she's an Elemerian."

"You did?" Yellow, Red, and Orchidmantisguildy all asked at the same time.

"Yeah?" White smiled. "She introduced herself as Orchidguildy, which is the same as all the other guildy's from TV. How could I not know?"

Stunned silence filled the room, and even Orchidmantisguildy looked shocked.

"Then… why did you pretend to believe me?" The alien asked, slowly undoing the cravat around their neck.

"How else could I meet the Tailsuit Warriors?" White asked, then she turned to Red before falling to her knees and begging. "Please, you have to get me out of here! This country's terrible and there's no food!"

A scandalised gasp was heard from the doorway, as one of the armed guards stared at White in disapproval. "Supreme Leader, how could you?"

"Oh, shut up. You know it's true." White dismissed.

"Wait, what did he call you?" Red asked, backing away from the younger girl for a few steps.

She rolled her eyes. "Supreme Leader."

"Wait." Yellow piped up, eyeing the little girl with bafflement on her features. "So you're… Kim?"

"Yes." White admitted. "But look, I never wanted to be the leader of this shit hole."

"But didn't you have your entire family assassinated?" Yellow asked.

"They were trying to kill me, too!" White snapped, then added. "I didn't ask to be born into the Game of Thrones, you know?"

"Wait!" Red put a hand to her head. "So you're the Supreme Leader of North Korea?"  
"Uh-huh."

"And you don't want to be the Supreme Leader anymore?"

"No, definitely not."

"And now you want us to take you with us when we leave?"

"Yes, please!"

Not sure what else to do, Red asked into his communicator. "...Thoughts, homebase?"

"I feel kind of sorry for him." Came back Twoearle's voice. "But I don't think we can trust him."

"If he's anything like the Kim from my world, than no." Isabella voiced her thoughts. "His transformation is also suuuuuper creepy."

Red considered their arguments before nodding in agreement, and looking back down towards the childified dictator. How to reject her without starting a fight…? "Um, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's going to work for us."

White's face fell. "Really?" At that moment she looked like nothing but a small, lonely little child.

Despite the rising feeling of guilt in Tailred, she reminded herself that this little girl was actually an adult man and a mass murderer. "I'm sorry."

"That's a shame… I guess it's plan B, then." White sighed before looking towards Orchidmantisguildy. "Do you need help conquering the world?"

"...Sure." The alien agreed, confused but eager to turn the odds in his favor with a new ally. "Can we start by defeating these two?"

"Way ahead of you." White sighed, before digging an old mobile phone out of her night stand, and beginning to text.

"What are you doing?" Red frowned.

"Sending the codes to arm the nukes." White answered back. "And... sent!"

"Pink, are you on standby?" Red demanded into her communicator.

"Yeah, as soon as Twoearle detects a missile I can be there!"

"Who's Pink?" White asked, curiously.

"New girl." Red explained. "Hasn't had a public outing here on Earth yet, though."

"So you're accepting new members, but you won't accept me?!" White was indignant.

"We can intercept any missiles you send." Red announced. "So just surrender peacefully!"

"Hmm… No." White shook her head. "How about you surrender peacefully?"

"We would never do that!" Red declared firmly, drawing her sword.

"I think you will." White smirked, looking up at her 'hero' again. "Because if you don't, millions of people will die."

"From the missiles?" Red gave a triumphant grin. "We already prepared for that. Pink is ready to intercept them at any moment!"

"Hmm…" White frowned. "Guess that program was a big waste of money then, but who said anything about missiles?"

"Y-you did?" Red glanced towards Yellow for reassurance, who shrugged. "Right?"

"No, see, this country is crap and broke, right?" White explained. "So I've got like, _one_ functioning missile, but there's no way I can blow it here. What I do have is a few bombs, though."

"What does that matter if you can't even use them outside your own country?" Yellowed pointed.

"It means if you don't surrender to me I'll kill the three million people who live in Pyongyang."

The blood drained from Red's face, and a pit opened up in her stomach. She stared at White in shock.

White held up her phone threateningly, finger held over the send button. "If you don't untransform and give me those tailsuits right now, I'm going to detonate a bomb beneath Pyongyang and kill everyone in it."

"You'd never do that to your own city!" Yellow cried out, and White scoffed.

"Please, I hate this shit hole country. I grew up in a private school in Finland, not knowing who my father was until I was like, fourteen. Ever since I was dragged back to this rotten place all I've wanted was to survive and escape." White shrugged. "That meant killing my whole family and taking over, but then suddenly my face was everywhere internationally, and if I try to betray the country, the party members and generals will kill me and replace me with some other Kim they've squirreled away somewhere.

"I was trapped, my future hopelessly bound to the fate of a miserable third world economy that was convinced I was a god." A small smile tugged at the corner of White's lips. "And then the tailsuit warriors appeared! You were so beautiful, and brave." She looked down at her own body appreciatively, and her voice turned to a soft purr. "And _empowered. _If I could be like that, I could do whatever I wanted and no one could stop me.

She looked back up at the Red and Yellow. "So it's really simple. I _hate_ those people, the three millions worthless mouths living in that awful city. I _want_ them to die, I really do. I'm glad they're starving, and I love seeing them forced into labor camps. See, I didn't have that bomb set up under the city so I could use them as a hostage or anything like that, I just really really liked the idea of killing every last one of them. I put that bomb there because I just wanted the _power_."

Horrified silence followed her announcement, and she looked over to the door where the two guards were staring in disbelief at their supreme leader after his confession.

"Oops." White sighed, before looking at Orchidmantisguildy. "Can you deal with those two?"

"No problem." The alien shrugged.

"Wait!" Red held up her hands, a horrible feeling of helplessness washing over her. "Wait, stop! Don't kill them."

"Sure." White smirked. "They can be hostages too. Surender, and you get to live."

"Red…" Twoearle's voice came over the communicator. "You can't."

"We have to!" Red swallowed, mind racing. "We can't just let all those people die."

"Imagine what White will do if she gets her hands on the tailsuits, though?" Yellow argued back.

"But we can't just let three million people die." Red protested, trying to think of something but unable to come up with anything. All it would take would be a twitch of White's finger for the order to be sent. Glancing to her right, she saw Yellow readying a small hand blaster behind her back, no doubt preparing to shoot the phone out of White's hand.

"None of that!" Orchidmantisguildy summoned her scythe, and used it to hook Yellow's arm, pulling the weapon up so it was visible to the room.

"Yeah, the longer this drags out the more chances you have to do something clever and heroic." White sighed. "Alright, five."

"N-no-!"

"Four." White ignored her protests.

"Twoearle can you find the bomb?" Red demanded.

"Three."

"I don't have access to his network, I'd need time to-"

"Two."

"Alright!" Red shouted, dropping her sword to the ground with a clatter. "We surrender."

"Great!" White grinned brightly. "And I mean all of you: Red, Blue, Yellow and whoever this Pink is."

At that moment a glimmer of an idea occurred to Red, and she glanced at Orchidmantisguildy. "I'm sorry, but… Blue's dead."

White looked shocked. "What?"

"It's true." Orchidmantisguildy smirked. "We arranged for that."

"How?" White truly sounded disappointed.

Red answered. "She was caught in a nuclear explosion on another world."

"Really?" White looked to the alien for confirmation.

"That's exactly what happened." The alien boasted. "The result of a brilliant plan of mine."  
It wasn't hard for Red to pretend glare at him resentfully, because she wasn't pretending at all. This monster really had almost killed Aika, and for a whole day Souji had been convinced she was dead.

"Aww…" White pouted. "Now I won't have the complete set…"

"The what?"

"We can get to that later. Right now I want you and Yellow to undo your transformations."

"Red, our identities." Yellow murmured.

_There's no telling what this psycho might do if White learns my true identity_. Red thought. She might send assassins are agents to try and abduct Souji's family. Right then she needed to be Sora when she untransformed. With that thought in mind, she begged her own mind, her own Elemera. _Please. Protect my family! Right now I need to be Sora!_

When the light of the transformation faded, Sora found herself standing there as a beautiful, well developed, sixteen year old. _Thank you._ She thanked her lucky twintails.

On the other hand, Erina wasn't as lucky. When she dropped her transformation she found herself standing there fully as her normal self.

"Huh." White examined them in their untransformed state for a moment, looking up and down. "Not quite what I was expecting, but still somehow fitting." She smiled brightly. "Now for your other friends. That white haired woman who appears with you sometimes, and this new girl. Pink."

"Wait, but-" Sora started to protest.

"But what?" White interrupted with a smirk, holding up the phone again. "I know you guys can teleport wherever you please, I've seen it on the news and with my own eyes. Bring them here, right now."

Souji hesitated, before raising the device to his lips. _As long as Aika'a free, she can break us out of here at any moment. Even without her tailsuit, she can definitely take on some armed guards._ "Twoearle? Could you and Pink come here."

* * *

As the sound of Sora's request from the communicator faded, an enormous weight settled over Aika's shoulders.

"Senpai?" Pink looked horrified and confused at that exact moment, just like Twoearle, though the scientist's face was a little harder for Aika to read.

"...Twoearle, how long until the Blue suit will be repaired?"

"Days." She answered in a small voice.

"...That's okay." Aika folded her arms. "Pink, Twoearle, go and surrender."

"But…" Pink looked scared.

"It's okay." Aika put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, I've got this."

The younger girl stared up at Aika for a long moment, chewing her lip fearfully before asking, "Do you promise?"

"Yeah, I do. I promise I can get everyone home safe."

"How?" Twoearle demanded.

"Easy." Aika promised. "I'll just need this." She took the laser pointer from Isabella's shoulders. Then she put her hand over Tailpink's wrist. "And this."

Pink's face soon matched her hair.

"I think she means your Tailsuit." Twoearle pointed out.

Still blushing furiously, Pink transformed back into Isabella and handed her bracer over. "Right."

"Hurry." Aika said to the two of them, indicating the space jump catapult.

"...Do you really have a plan?" Twoearle asked.

"Yeah, I'll just find the nuke and get rid of it." Aika said, holding up the laser pointer. "Now hurry, before he starts to get suspicious."

They both turned and walked to the catapult, but Isabella hesitated just in front of the device.

"It's okay, trust me."

She bit her lip and nodded, before stepping into the machine and disappearing in a flash of light.

Now alone, Aika slipped into the chair in front of the console and began furiously typing on the keyboard. She sighed. "Now to just figure out how to use Twoearle's operating system…"

* * *

"Is that a real cat girl?!" White shouted with excitement the moment she set eyes on Isabella, and a shiver ran down her spine.

"Princess…" Orchidmantisguildy breathed out as he saw her. "Oh, I'm so relieved to see you're okay."

"Bite me." She snapped back at him.  
"Oooh, she's sassy." White grinned, before facing Twoearle. "And you are?"

"Just a passerby?"

"Her name is Twoearle, she was the Tailblue of a world we defeated, but she escaped before we could harvest her attributes." Orchidmantisguildy sneered. "But I'm glad you're here."

"It's such a shame that Blue's gone." White cursed, looking over the group. "Without her it's not a complete set."

"What do you mean by a 'set'?" Sora asked.

"Hm?" White looked back to her. "Oh, I've been an enormous collector of Twintail Warrior materials for a long time now." Her grin grew lascivious. "Speaking of which..."

After Orchidmantisguildy took away their tailsuits and patted them down for any concealed weapons or devices, the group was led deeper into Kim's palace. The group wasn't especially surprised to realise they weren't actually in Pyongyang, but the family's luxurious private residence deep in the countryside. Of course the vicious dictator wouldn't be willing to blow himself up.

They soon found themselves in what looked like a museum of sorts, filled with all kinds of strange displays. In glass cases all around the room was rubble from some of their battles, just small piles of concrete, fractured stones, and piles of gravel. That was weird, but not as disturbing as the collections of finger nails and hair.

"Those can't be real." Sora uttered in disbelief.

"They are!" White assured them. "I have a reliable source in Japan, who sells them to me on Ebay."

"Those are my panties!" Erina yelled with wide eyed horror, pointing at one display. "Who could have gotten those from my family's mansion?!"  
"I don't know." White admitted. "I only know them via their online name."

"It will forever remain a mystery." Twoearle intoned gravely.

They were soon led to a display that looked like three seperate, giant terrariums, the floors around which were painted red, rellow, and blue. Each of them looked like a small one room apartment, complete with couches, beds, and televisions. There was a bathroom in one corner, though there was no shower curtain or cubicle door, or privacy of any kind.

White clucked her tongue with disappointment, before turning to Isabella and Twoearle. "You two will just have to share Blue's for now."

They were separated into their glass cages, and soon discovered camera's in all four corners of their rooms.

"Don't worry, Princess." Orchidmantisguildy reassured as the door was shut behind Isabella and Twoearle, and locked from the outside. "I'll soon negotiate your release, and you can accompany me when I leave here and return to Noplace."

"Drop dead, creep." She sneered at him.

They weren't left alone after that. White and Orchidmantisguildy walked away together to discuss their plans, but the display room was patrolled by a dozen armed guards. Quiet settled over the room, except for the sound of soldiers boots on the hardwood floor. All the tailsuit warriors could do was wait quietly for rescue.

"Come on, Aika." Sora murmured to herself quietly. "I know you'll think of something…"


	26. 26 Cage and Collar

Brilliant. Truly brilliant. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, Orchidmantisguildy was destined for greatness among Elemerians. He really was one for the history books. The other fools could prattle on about honor in battle all they wanted, but what none of them realised was their leader, Ultimateguildy, really only cared about results. As far as results go, defeating and capturing all the attributes of two worlds for the price of one, especially when one of those worlds had been a very troublesome and dangerous one with several out of control twintail warriors, was about as good as any guildy could hope for. Orchidmantisguildy smelled a promotion coming his way in the near future.

He strode onto the bridge of his mothership, cape billowing majestically behind him and cackling at his own genius. Around him, lower ranked Elemerians exchanged uneasy glances with each other, none of them feeling brave enough to say anything about his bizarre behaviour. Eventually his good humor subsided, and he cleared his tingling throat. "Now, you there… Gooseguildy, was it?"

"Swanguildy, sir." Corrected the smaller Elemerian.

"Excellent!" Though what was excellent about being a swan rather than a goose wasn't immediately apparent. "Tell me, how goes the construction of the great rings?"

"Sir, the Catyu ring was completed shortly before we left for this universe, and the Earth ring was completed just hours before your return." Swanguildy gave his report calmly, after all he only had good news to offer.

"Hah, hah! Even more brilliance on my part!" Orchidmantisguildy sank into his throne and crossed his legs. "With four tailsuit warriors defeated, all that's left is to betray Tailwhite, and claim Earth and Catyu for Ultimaguil, **once and for allllll!**" Once again, he burst into uproarious laughter, and clapped his hands.

It was a few moments until the other bridge members realised their commander was glaring at them because they hadn't joined him, and began clapping too, while chuckling politely.

"Enough of that!" Orchidmantisguildy slashed his hand sharply diagonally, and everyone was silenced immediately. "Move the rings to Earth and Catyu. I will go to Earth now with the last of our Ultiroids to deal with White, personally!"

* * *

He was not actually the Supreme Leader of North Korea, but if he ever admitted that he would be tortured by the real leader until he said he was. His real name was classified and he never used it anymore, because he was the Supreme Leader's body double, thanks to their similar appearances. His resemblance to Kim had caught the party's attention, and before he knew it he was pulled out of his work line and made to gain almost a hundred pounds until their waistlines were a match.

There had already been half a dozen assassination attempts that he'd barely survived, and he wasn't allowed to contact his family anymore. But hey, at least he got three _very_ full meals a day, so he had it better than most in this country.

Currently he was laying in bed, going over documents Kim had assigned him so he could learn certain facts about the leader he would need to know in order to impersonate him. Some of the things were silly, like how Kim washed his hair or what his favourite anime was, while other things were terrifying, like where the country's missiles were located, or the actual state of their economy. There was a lot to go through, and he was supposed to remember all of it. "It could be worse, it really could be." He reminded himself, and continued turning pages.

Suddenly there was a flash of blue energy, and he jumped, scattering documents over the floor as a teenager appeared in his room. Her hair was tied up in a long pair of black twintails, and she was wearing what looked like a black tank top and blue shorts, like she was about to go to the gym or something.

He stared at her in disbelief for a moment, before opening his mouth to call for the guards. His lips had only just parted, when faster than he could blink, she was suddenly behind him and choking him out.

There was another flash of blue light, and the world around him disappeared. Suddenly, the walls were made of metal and the room was a lot more spacious, with computer monitors and large consoles full of buttons and dials.

"Oh, by the Supreme Leader!" He cried in shock, or he would have if he could breathe right then. As much as he struggled, he just couldn't pry those thin little arms from his neck. It felt like he'd have just as much chance of bending a bundle of rebars. Just as black dots appeared in the corners of his eyes, an incredible force shoved his back and sent him sprawling face first into the hard floor. Stunned, but able to breath again, he simply lay flat on his belly, panting as he felt his arms being tied behind his back. Then his legs were restrained too, and he found himself perfectly hog tied and utterly helpless.

"Alright, 'Kim'." The girl growled at him, walking in front of him. "I know you're not the real supreme leader, he currently looks like a five year old girl, but you would definitely have met his inner circle."

"Who are you? Where am I?"  
"Nope, I'm asking the questions." The girl slapped him so hard his ears were ringing, and he could have sworn he felt blood vessels popping in his eyes. "Don't speak unless spoken to, got it?"

Woozily, he nodded.

"Right now there's a live nuke buried under Pyongyang, and you might not know where it is, but you know who knows where it is, right?"

_There's a nuke under Pyongyang? _He thought to himself in disbelief. "How would I know where someone put a bomb? I'm just a body double."

"Because the man you're impersonating is the one who buried it."

"...That's impossible."

"It's definitely not." She frowned. "And unless you help me find where it is, a lot of people are going to die."

"..." He lay his head flat against the floor, and realised it wasn't even a hard decision to make. "My family is in Pyongyang. The room you just took me from, those documents I had? They contain everything Kim expects me to know to impersonate him."

There was a moment of silence before the girl walked past him and out of his line of sight. There was a flash of blue light, and she was gone.

* * *

It had been hours since Sora had been locked in her cage, and she found herself growing more and more anxious with each passing second. She could see her friends through the glass walls, though they couldn't speak with each other. Erina was watching North Korean television in her room, and when Sora turned the tv on she found only two channels. One was playing an animated TV show about a hedgehog and a squirrel fighting against weasels to protect their home, called Flower Hill, and the other was just a news and propaganda station. Sora soon turned it off.

Just beyond the yellow cage in the blue one, Isabella was sat on the bed, looking anxious and impatient, while Twoearle paced back and forth with obviously nervous energy. Every now and then Isabella's hand would go to her pocket almost automatically, as if reaching for something that simply wasn't there.

_Come on, Aika. Where are you? _Sora looped her fingers in her twintails, trying to calm herself down. _How long can it really take to find a hidden nuke?_

From her corner of her eyes, Sora spotted a small, white haired girl eagerly hurrying towards them, followed by a man in a dinosaur costume of all things. There was a flap in the door that Sora assumed would be used to feed them, though they hadn't been there for long enough to need a meal yet.

Tailwhite flipped it up, and spoke through it. "Comfortable?"  
"I'd be more comfortable if you let me walk around."

"No problem!" White cheerfully answered. "Just put this on." Through the flap she passed a red coloured doggy collar, with a silver tag that said, 'Tailred', and a small metal loop for a leash to attach to.

The blood drained from Sora's face. _Oh, please no._ "Uh… I'm actually good for now." Sora fed the collar back through the hole in the door.

"Oh, no. That's naauughty~" White sang back through the hole. "And bad doggies don't get any food."

Without another word, Sora pulled down the flap on her side and backed away from glass wall with a shudder. "Aika, please, you need to get me the fuck out of here."

After wagging her finger at Sora in a lecturing tone, White made her way to the yellow cage, and made the same offer to Erina, and she didn't seem entirely displeased by it.

Sora banged her fist on the glass between the two of them, causing Erina to glance her way. "Erina, no." Sora ordered with a firm shake of her head.

A slightly downcast look came over Erina's features, but she returned the dog collar with what looked like an apology.

Pouting, White came back over to Sora's cage and spoke through the hole. "Look, if that's too much for you to start with I have other games we can play."

"I don't know why you think you have time to play games." Sora pointed out. "You know you haven't got long until Orchidmantisguildy betrays you, right?"

"Probably." White agreed, then withdrew the Red and Yellow bracer's from her pocket. "But that's why I have these! All I've got to do is give you back your tailsuits, and the three of us can fight him off together."

Without warning, the man in the dinosaur costume reached across and snatched both the bracers from White's hand.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"Mugi!" The dinosaur man screeched back and pulled off the costume's head.

"Oh, no." Red stared in disbelief at the Ultiroid head poking out of the costume's torso.

"You're not one of my pleasure girls!" White accused.

"No, they're definitely not." Orchidmantisguildy's voice filled the room, and the massive alien himself stepped out from behind an exhibit. "I replaced your girl with one of mine the first chance I could, and thanks to that ridiculous costume you never noticed the difference!"

A frightened look came over White's face, and she called out. "Guards!"

Rather than the sound of boots charging up the hall, the collection room remained silent.

"Ultiroids!" Orchidmantisguildy called, and the room was suddenly filled with a swarm of the lesser black aliens, though they were all wearing Korean army uniforms. "I took the liberty of making sure we wouldn't be interrupted."

"Looks like I'll just have to defeat you myself." White sneered, standing as tall as her childish form would allow.

"By all means, go ahead, though I doubt your chances."

"The Elemerians are no match for the tailsuits!" White boasted.

"Usually, most Elemerians are much weaker." Orchidmantisguildy agreed. "But they're not foolish enough to wander around transformed for days at a time."

"What does that have to do with anything?" White demanded.

"The suits have a limited amount of energy." Sora answered through the flap. "The only reason you're not out yet already is you've done almost nothing, but laze around. Even so, you're probably already almost out by now."

Tailwhite went pale.

Laughing uproariously, Orchidmantisguildy spread his arms wide and cried out. "I've won! At last, this world will fall beneath my boots! Bow down before my brilliance!" His laughter continued for nearly half a minute, before he began to calm down. "Ultiroids, collect these samples!" He waved a hand over the room, and immediately the ultiroids began prying open the displays, and gathering up the piles of fingernails and hair.

"Ew." Sora's face screwed up.

Orchidmantisguildy strode forwards, scythe in hand and looming over Tailwhite.

"S-s-someone, save me!" The dictator cried out as her back touched the red cage.

All of a sudden there was a flash of blue, and Aika was standing in the middle of the room. Cradled in her arms was the laser pointer, and she aimed it at Sora's cage. She pulled the trigger, and the moment the red beam touched the glass, there was a bright light and the entire thing disappeared. Tailwhite fell backwards onto her backside, as what she was leaning against disappeared, and Aika aimed at the other two cages, teleporting them out the Earth's atmosphere too.

"Who are you?" Orchidmantisguildy demanded.

"Who on earth is that?!" White gaped from the floor.

"Isabella, catch!" Aika threw the pink bracer to Isabella, who snatched it out of the air, and immediately transformed.

"No!" Orchidmantisguildy roared, swinging his scythe at Aika, only for it to be blocked by Tailpink's warhammer. "Princess!"

"Time for a rematch!" The tailsuit warrior growled, before headbutting him viciously.

"That one has our tailsuits!" Sora shouted, and pointed at the ultiroid half dressed in a dinosaur costume.

It looked at them, blinking slowly, before turning to run. On four legs it scuttled towards the exit.

Without hesitating, Aika used her thumb to flick a switch on the side of the laser pointer. She changed it from pointing to a dial that read, 'Space,' to another that said, 'base'. There was a flash, and the fleeing ultiroid disappeared in a flash of light.

"I'll be right back with the suits!" Aika shouted, before pointing the barrel of the laser pointer at her own chin, and firing. Instantly, she vanished, and the long device clattered to the floor.

"Don't just stand there!" Orchidguildy barked at the other ultiroids. "Capture these samples!"

Without pausing to think about it, Sora dove forward and snatched up the laser pointer. She changed its setting back to space, just as the nearest Ultiroid rushed at her. Just barely, she maneuvered the device between her and the alien and squeezed the trigger. It disappeared, catapulted into outer orbit.

More aliens rushed Sora, and wielding the device like a weapon, she sent them to space too before one of the creatures reached her and grabbed an arm. Try as she might, she just wasn't strong enough to break the alien's hold on her.

"Erina!" Sora shouted, and threw the laser pointer to the eighteen year old, who caught it and turned it on the alien clinging to the redhead.

"Mugi!" It tried covering its eyes, before it was catapulted into space.

"Look out!" Pink yelled at her, and Erina turned just in time to see Orchidmantisguildy's scythe come down towards her head.

With a squeal, she fell backwards, but the laser pointer was split in half.

"Don't your hurt my friends!" Pink snapped, and brought her warhammer into Orchidmantisguildy's side, flinging him into a waiting pile of ultiroids.

"Protect us until Aika brings back our suits!" Sora ordered her, and she nodded.

"There won't be time, Princess!" Orchidmantisguildy laughed, climbing to his feet. "None of this matters, anyway. The great ring is on its way here to harvest all this world's attributes."

"What? What's the great ring?" Sora demanded.

"It's basically a giant Elemerian ring that sucks all the attributes from entire planets at a time." Twoaearle answered. "They don't use it when there are still active twintail warriors on a world because the tailsuits protect them from it, and they require so much power that they're basically a one shot. If they suck all the world's attributes with it, we can destroy it to return them."

"That won't matter." Orchidmantisguily boasted, and pointed his long scythe at the cowering Tailwhite. "This fool won't be of much help to you I bet, so it's just you and me, _Princess._"

"Don't worry." Sora reassured her. "When Aika gets back here with the other suits-"

"HAH!" Orchidmantisguily scoffed. "Even the mightiest human isn't a match for even the lowliest of Ultiroids. I don't know who your friend is, but she stands no chance trying to retrieve those tailsuits!"

"That's where you're wrong!" Erina interupted. "I know that Aika can do this!"

"Senpai is the strongest of them all!" Tailpink chorused her agreement.

"That monster is no mere human." Twoearle smirked. "After all, she's the world's number one gorilla girl."

* * *

Somewhere beneath Japan, Aika found herself getting angry at Twoearle, and not quite knowing why.


	27. 27 Mortal Kombat!

The secret base was a lot more crowded than usual. In her search for the nuclear bomb, Aika had been forced to go through the Supreme Leader's body double, who then led her to his aide, who then led her to his mad scientist, and then protecting the bomb itself which was a squad of a dozen of North Korea's finest. All of these men were currently tied up and gagged on the floor of the base's main room. Some of them would want to see a doctor in their near future, but they were all alive and conscious when an Ultiroid wearing a dinosaur costume appeared in the middle of the room, shortly followed by the twintailed teenager who had abducted all of them.

The sudden change in location left the alien stunned, and it looked around at its new surroundings and made a low, confused sound in the back of its throat. "Muugiii."

Aika had no such misgivings when she was catapulted into the room. The second she saw the the Ultiroid, she lashed out at it, delivering a perfect combination of blows with her right and left fists to its face. Nothing was held back in her attacks, each blow was fast enough that they changed the air pressure in the room for a moment, and they landed with an incredible sound, like someone dropped something heavy from a great distance above the earth.

And none of them did a thing. The ultiroids head just bounced back lightly, almost like a balloon on a string. The creature counter attacked, swiping with its arm at Aika's face. She turned with the blow, capturing it with her hands and twisting so the creature was flipped over her shoulder and slammed down onto the floor on its back. The speed she flung it at tore the dinsoaur sleeve off the arm she was holding, but the ultiroid just bounced off the floor like a rubber ball, and stood up completely unharmed.

"Mugi!" It barked at her, stamping its feet like an angry gorilla before ripping away the rest of its costume. On each of its wrists were red and yellow bracers, and it held its hands in front of its face like a boxer's guard. It charged at Aika, swinging its arm out wildly in a haymaker. Her first instinct was to block the blow at the wrist, diverting most force from the attack, before countering, but some sixth sense went off in the back of her head and rather than take the blow directly she stepped backwards out of its reach. His arm parted the air in front of her face, fast and powerful enough that Aika dimly realised she would have broken her bones trying to block it.

It was a shocking realisation for her. _This little weirdo is faster than I am, and stronger._ Even without any real technique behind them, the creature's wild strikes were incredibly powerful, and Aika found herself ducking and weaving desperately to avoid serious injury. The ultiroid took a step backwards, before bouncing forwards in another haymaker, one that Aika saw coming a mile away and evaded easily, before stepping forward, putting her weight on her right foot and pushing up with it to add force to her fist when it crashed into the ultiroid's chin.

The force behind her strike would easily have lifted a five hundred pound man off his feet, and probably exploded the lower half of his face, but on this enemy it seemingly just wobbled its head harmlessly. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she wasn't able to bring her arms up to block the creatures next attack. The ultiroid smashed its fists into her stomach, and Aika was launched off her feet, right into Twoearle's controls panels. Sparks flew across the room from severed wires and metal fragments rained down to the floor, and Aika felt a bone crack inside her chest.

"Mugi!" The creature cheered triumphantly, laughing gleefully as it danced backwards and forwards on the ground.

Pain radiated through Aika's torso, as she forced herself back up to her feet and brought her fists back up. Somehow, no matter how she struck the Ultiroid, the force of the blow was dispersed. It must have been something kind of like the inertial dampeners on the tailsuits, it was possibly even what Twoearle had based the technology on, but the realisation didn't comfort Aika. According to the specs Twoearle had given them, the inertial dampeners on the suits could safely absorb up to ninety tons of force, and Aika news she couldn't exert that much with one of her fists.

The creature charged again with another wild haymaker, and she diverted the blow and countered with a series of strikes to the creature's chest, none of which did anything. Her fists didn't even feel the blows, she realised. Normally when she attacked something she felt the force of it reverberate up through her forearms, but against this creature it was almost like she was just lightly bumping into it no matter how hard she exerted herself, and by contrast all it took was a lucky backhand from the Ultiroid to fling Aika off her feet again. She smacked into one of the base's monitors, cracking the screen before falling to the ground on her face.

She was alive, but her bell was thoroughly rung. Woozily, she climbed back to her feet, only for the cackling ultiroid to seize her around her chest under the armpits and begin squeezing. Pressure like a metal vice pressed in on Aika from all sides, adding strain to her already damaged ribs and she cried out in pain. She kicked, and used her elbows as best as she could, bouncing it's body like a rubber ball but unable to dislodge it. Her bones creaked ominously, and she brought her legs up under her to put all her strength into pushing against the creature's thighs with her heels.

With a final grunt of exertion, the ultiroid's thin arms slide down past her chest and over her belly. It tried to grip her more tightly, but it found no purchase on her hips either, and Aika slipped free of it's hold and kicked away from it to land on her feet just in front of it. It might have been the first time she ever felt grateful for her slim chest...

"Mugi!" The creature shrilled in outrage, coming at her again, and once again she was on the backfoot, evading all its wild strikes. Untrained, the creature brought its foot too far forward, and Aika seized the chance to pin it in place by putting her foot on it, and pressing her open palm against the creature. Rather than try to strike it, she just gave it a shove, and the ultiroid went sprawling across the room.

_Striking._ She realised. _It's resistant to striking because it disperses the force from my blows, but if I can just get my hands on it I can still exert all my pressure._

Not giving the Ultiroid the chance to recover, she ran forward and stepped behind it, wrapping her arms around its waist, and lifted with her back and hips until her body was almost vertical to the ground. The full weight of the ultiroids head and neck smashed into the floor of the secret base in a perfect German Suplex. The initial force of the blow was dispersed by the creatures rubbery nature, but Aika didn't let it go, and continued to grind the creature into the floor. It screamed and struggled as it's neck bent at an odd angle, and managed to kick itself free of Aika's grip, but it was clearly hurt, clutching at its neck.

"I've got you now!" Aika grinned savagely, and charged the creature.

"Mugi!" It shrilled, and tried to escape her, but she caught its arm and pulled herself off the ground with it. She wrapped both her legs around the creatures neck and pivoted her body, using her weight and momentum to force her foe to the ground. The creature flailed desperately, but she had it caught beneath her in a pin, and it wasn't able to get the force into its blows to do more than bruise her. With her hands she trapped its head between her palms and squeezed.

"Muuuuugiiiiiii!" It cried, flailing anew. Its arms smacked into her abs, chest, upper arms, even clinging to her face. Each attack was still powerful, some even broke her skin and all of them bruised. None of them were enough to dislodge her, and Aika only grinned more widely at the pain, squeezing harder and harder.

"Mmmmuuuuuugiiiiiiiii!" Its head was deforming, a ridge appearing in its face from it's rubbery skin creasing. Aika could practically feel her palms touching, when the line in the alien's head started glowing. "Muuuuuugiiiiiiiiii!"

_**BOOM!**_

The explosion launched Aika into the ceiling, shattering a light fitting and fragments of glass cut her as she landed on her back. There was a clattering sound, as the two bracers bounced to a stop right next to her, and she sat up, grinning through bloody teeth. There were burns on her face and upper body, and there were cuts all over her. She was going to be black and blue in a day's time, but she was victorious. Slowly standing, she found her right leg was a little sensitive to put her weight on. After picking up the bracers, she limped over towards the catapult only to stop when she remembered her captive audience.

All the North Korean's she'd abducted stared at her in shock and disbelief.

"No trouble while I'm gone!" She warned them. "I'll be back."

There was frenzied nodding all around.

Satisfied, she stepped back into the catapult and disappeared.

* * *

"I don't approve of your new friends, Princess." The pole of Orchidmantisguildy's scythe was pressed against the haft of Tailpink's warhammer, and the two were straining against each other. Slowly but surely, he was pressuring her backwards, her feet sliding across the hardwood thanks to his superior weight. "They seem like a bad influence to me."

"You're so annoying!" She grunted, trying to dig her toes in. "You really think you're my daddy, don't you?"

"Hmmf." Orchidmantisguildy smirked. "I'm no mere King, or princeling! I'm a knight in shining armour! Now, ultiroids! Strike her down!"

Pink's eyes widened, and she tried to pull away from her foe, only to accidentally expose herself to an attack from the lesser aliens. No one Ultiroid was able to do much damage, but each one was able to bruise her just a little. Slowly but surely, she was losing this battle.

"Stay back!" Tailpink glanced back to see Sora valiantly trying to fend off an ultiroid with some familiar looking karate moves, but the alien just absorbed the blows and effortlessly lifted her into the air by the hem of her shirt. Sora made a choking sound and kicked. Pink grit her teeth. She might not like Sora very much, or Souji for that matter, but she wasn't going to let one of Senpai's friends get dragged away on her watch.

"Die!" She barked, and threw her warhammer at the alien.

"Mugi?" The alien only had time to glance her way, before the hammer smashed into his face, sending him flying through the glass of a display, exploding and shattering the entire structure.

Rolling away from the collapsing roof, Sora just barely avoiding being cut in half by a gigantic shard of glass that embedded itself in the floor. "Th-thanks, Pink." She stuttered.

"Don't look away from me!" Orchidmantisguildy snapped, swinging his scythe at Pink, which she just barely avoided, by stepping straight into an Ultiroid's spin kick.

"This is hard enough as it is!" Pink yelled at the twintail warriors. "I can't win this if I have to protect you guys!"

"You can't win this anyway, Princess!"

"Shut up!" She snapped back at him, still ducking and weaving between his and the many Ultiroids attacks.

"Just hold out until Aika gets back!" Twoearle answered. "We need to wait here for the tailsuits!"

"Easy for you to say." She grumbled, before dropping into a karate stance her Senpai had shown her. There had only been a few days for Isabella to practice together with Aika, but maybe without the weight of the warhammer she'd have an easier time evading these attacks.

"Do you have any modules?!" Erina called out as she struggled to get out of the reach of a grabby looking ultiroid.

"Just the flight one." Isabella answered back. It wouldn't be much use indoors unless they wanted to run away, and they couldn't leave until Aika returned with the tailsuits.

"You think your friend is coming back?" Orchidmantisguildy smirked. "If she does, it will be because she's fleeing for her life. One ultiroid is more than a match for any ten humans."

"Yeah, well that gorilla is more than a match for any twenty." Twoearle pointed out.

"Hah!" He laughed. "We'll see. Even if she does make it back in time, that still won't solve all your problems. You're already in checkmate, you just don't see it yet."

Pink grimaced. "Yeah, well, I'm sure you'd love to explain, so why don't you just go ahead?"

"Time is on my side, so why not?" He spread his arms wide. "There will only be three tailsuit warriors fit to fight if your friends returns, which she won't, but if she does." He raised one clawed finger. "One of you will need to stay here to hold me off." He raised his second one. "One of you will need to go to Catyu to destroy the ring there." He raised his third finger. "One of you will will need to destroy the ring coming towards Earth." He sneered triumphantly.

"That's no problem at all." Erina raised a confused eyebrow. "That's three warriors and three problems."

His mandible wriggled with smug satisfaction. "Ah, but have any of you seen Tailwhite? She might not have a bomb under Pyongyang anymore, but remember she still had one functioning missile? Where do you think she's going now?"

"I can deal with that." Aika's voice came over Pink's communicator, and suddenly she was standing there.

"Senpai!" She cried joyously, then paused in surprise at the sight in front of her. Her Senpai had returned with both bracers, but she was also cut and bruised all over her body. One side of her face was terribly bruised, and her left eye was bloodshot and blackened.

"Catch!" She tossed the bracers to Erina and Sora, who transformed immediately.

"Holy shit." Twoearle uttered, staring in disbelief. "What happened to you?"  
A smirk came over Aika's face, and she said to Red. "I can take care of the dictator."

"Aika, you need a doctor!" Worry was painted all over old friend's face, and was obvious in Red's voice.

"I'm fine, and we don't have time for it."

Red chewed her lip with concern for a moment, before nodding. She then turned to the other warriors and began barking out orders. "I'm the strongest, so I'll deal with Orchidmantisguildy and the ultiroids. Yellow, you need to take the flight module, and shoot down the Earth ring, you're the only one who can attack it from range. Pink and Twoearle, you need to get to Catyu and use the ship to get to the ring and destroy it there." She then looked to Aika and hesitated, seeing her wounded state. "Go. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can, so don't strain yourself."

"I won't need to." Aika smirked, before turning and jogging down the hall.

Red turned to the other three warriors. "You know what you have to do."

Yellow grabbed Twoearle's hand, and the two of them disappeared, but Pink hesitated.

"Have faith in her. Aika's going to be fine." Red assured her.

"I know that." She rolled her eyes, and turned to glare at Orchidmantisguildy. "I just wanted to be the one to finish this asshole off."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Red's lips. "Sorry."

"Running away, Princess?" Orchidmantisguildy smirked.

Pink's face fell, and she turned back to Red. "If you make his death extra bad, I'll delete those photos I have of you." There was a flash of light, and she disappeared.

Tailred summoned one of her swords, and turned to face the giant alien. "Alright, it's just you and me now, Orch-" A tiny ultiroid fist smacked Red in the side of her face, and she stumbled.

"I _never_ fight alone, fool." Orchidmantisguildy boasted.

"Hmmph." Red grunted, before pointing her sword. "Let's fix that, shall we?"

"What are you-?"

"Aura Pillar!" Red raised her arm, and fired a burst of Red Energy that swept up all the lesser aliens and gathered them into one place.

"What? No, damn it! How can you-"

"Grand!" Red's sword was wreathed in flame, and she dashed across the room at the helpless Ultiroids. "Blazer!"

All the pathetic creatures cried out in fear, and were silenced with a deafening roar.

Orchidmantisguildy took a fearful step backwards, as Red turned to face him.

"Now." Her eyes narrowed, and she raised her sword towards him. "Let's see you pull one of your stupid tricks now, coward!"


	28. 28 Regime Change?

Upon her first step into the secret base, Twoearle was shocked at what had been done to it. Monitors were crushed, light fittings in the ceiling were shattered, and some of her control panels had been straight up ripped out of the floor. In addition to all this damage, there was literally half a dozen men in military uniforms tied up on the floor.

She gasped. "What the hell, Aika?!"

"W-what happened?" Yellow asked with equal parts disbelief and excitement. Something about the sight of the men on the floor and the wrecked base had her wiggling on the spot and rubbing her thighs together.

Twoearle rolled her eyes at the sight. "Look, if you really want you can ask Aika to pound you like mochi later."

"With a woman?!" Yellow squeaked and covered her blushing face with both hands.

"Later!" Twoearle grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. "Listen to me, because this is important."

Yellow focused on her, but Twoearle suspected it was only at least partly because of the way she was treating her roughly. Feeling faintly irritated, she let go of her and took a step backwards.

"These Elemerian rings are enormous, wide enough to go around the entire earth and its moon, so if you just blow it up, pieces of it could fall and it'd be like the asteroid and the dinosaurs all over again, okay? But with like, a dozen different asteroids hitting every continent at the same time."  
Yellows eyes widened, suddenly not as aroused. "Oh."

"Once you're in space, use the ribbon Elemera to fly to the big glowing bit at one end of the ring, that's where it's powered. You need to find whatever Elemera they're using to power the ring and rip it out. After that we'll have to figure out a way to come pick you up, because you'll be out of range of the catapults."

"That's a lot to take in." Yellow murmured, but nodded.

Twoearle looked up. "Great, now where's Pink-?"

There was a sound from the space jump catapult, and the catgirl stepped into the room and reacted to the carnage much the same way the scientist did. "What the hell happened in here?"

"Aika happened." Twoearle answered. "As to why she felt the need to wreck our base, I cannot fathom the mind of a simian."

"What?" Apparently such scientific language was above her level of education as a middle schooler, and a confused expression came over Pink's face.

"Whatever, just give Yellow the Ribbon Elemera."

Nodding, Pink ejected the orb from her module and handed it to Yellow. "Here."

She thanked her, and inserted the orb.

"And while we're at it let's stock up on a few for you, Pink." Twoearle walked over to a wall and opened a panel. There was a hiss of gas, and a rush of cold air as what looked like a drawer of Elemera orbs in neat rows within their own circular little holds came free of the wall. "Let's see… How do you feel about Swimsuits?" She asked over her shoulder.

"Umm…" Pink just looked confused.

"That's a no then… How about flat chests?"

Pink blushed. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"That's a yes, then." Twoearle pulled it from the drawer. "And how about girly boys?"

Pink only seemed more baffled.

"Boyish girls?"

"Stop!" She demanded, tapping her foot and not making eye contact.

"That one definitely goes in the bag."

"Enough!" Pink growled and stomped over to Twoearle.

"Those two will have to do, then." Twoearle slammed the drawer shut and stood up, holding out the bag for Pink. "Take these."

"Geeze." She grumbled and inserted the two orbs, one to each module on her wrist.

"Yellow, come closer. I'll explain how to escape Earth's gravity, because the ribbon Elemera won't be enough. Pink, I'll fill you in on what you'll be doing while in the spaceship."

It would be of little comfort for any outsider who saw this scene to realise that the fates of two worlds and tens of billions of lives rested on such well adjusted and sturdy shoulders

* * *

All four feet of Earth's mightiest warrior stood before Orchidmantisguildy. He vaguely suspected that hair twintails alone made up half her body weight, and her sword was probably twice that. She only just came to above the height of an average person's hips, but compared to the alien warrior she probably didn't rise far above his knee.

Tailred raised her sword, taking careful and measured steps forward, closing the distance with the alien. The palace's display room was almost completely silent, the air so tense that each fighter almost felt a slash from their weapons would sound as clear as a bell.

Internally, Orchimantisguildy debated his options. He was a great warrior, especially in his own mind, but he was no match for Arachneguildy… And this girl was the one who killed that legend… Looking at it logically, he really only had one choice.

"Look, a cute girl with two metre long twintails!" He suddenly pointed past Red.

"Really?!" She turned her head, only to find an empty corridor behind her. Realising it was a distraction, she quickly spun to face her foe, ready to block whatever attack came, but instead all she saw was Orchidmantisguildy's back, shrinking as he ran further away. "Hey!" She yelled, surprised and began to chase after him. "Hey, that's cheating!"

Orchidmantisguildy rounded a corner and dove through a window to the outside, disappearing from view. When Tailred came to the window, she saw him three stories down and running across a courtyard to a waiting Elemerian ship.

"What about our duel?!" Red cried with frustration as the ramp closed with Orchidmantisguildy inside and the ship immediately took off. "You coward! Get back here!"

The last she saw of the Elemerian was the middle finger he gave her as the spaceship jetted away over the horizon.

"Ahhhhhh, come on!" She yelled helplessly and smashed her fist into the window sill, before mumbling to herself and leaning against it. "I haven't had a cool fight since the holidays started and Aika has had, like, three."

* * *

Glass crunched beneath Aika's shoes as she rushed through Kim's ruined palace. The halls were almost completely empty, with the only other faces she saw belonging to servants and other civilians who occasionally poked their head out the door to find out what all the commotion was. Whenever they caught sight of Aika, they would flinch and slam the door shut behind them.

They were probably more scared of the rifle she had slung around her neck than they were of the girl herself. Aika had found it in the hands of an unconscious guard, apparently knocked out by one of Orchidmantisguildy's Ultiroids when they invaded. She brought it along not because she thought it would help her much in a fight, but she could at least use it to scare people off who might try to get in her way. So far it had worked a treat.

It hadn't been too hard to figure out where the despot had run off to. She first checked the garage to see if Kim had tried to escape that way, and found it full to the brim with vehicles, and with the garage doors still sealed shut. After that the only place left to search was the war room, which was also empty. Aika had been stumped for a second, until she noticed scrape marks on the wall behind a primitive looking radar. After tipping it over she found a secret passage heading down towards what was obviously a hidden bunker of some kind.

As she crept down the stairs, she heard the sound of someone shouting echoing up to her from down the stairs.

"I don't care what it takes!" A man's voice reached her, though it was pitched upwards with panic. "Send the army! Send all of them, just get me out of here!"

Whatever the reply, it was obscured by the time it got to Aika.

"Just do it!" There was a slam and a ding, and in her head Aika imagined an old fashioned landline phone being slammed into the receiver. She came to the bottom of the stairs, and leaned out to peek around the corner to see the back of a chubby, young looking man exhaustedly slumping into a chair. On his wrist was a white metallic band.

_Even if he's low on energy, I won't be able to defeat him if he transforms…_ With that in mind, she quietly stepped out of the stairwell and crept forwards. One step at a time, she crossed the ten metres that separated them, until suddenly he turned and aimed a pistol at her while cocking the hammer back with his thumb.

"Stop." He ordered with a smirk.

Aika's eyes darted between the man's face and the barrel of his weapon. Knowing her own engagement range in karate and the length of her legs, she was confident she would be able reach him faster than he could squeeze the trigger, even before her training in the gravity room. But then what if he used the transformation?

"You're with the twintails, aren't you?" He demanded. "What are you doing down here?"

"I came down here to make sure you didn't set any more nukes off." Aika answered honestly.

"Yeah, well fresh out of those." Kim sneered. "But you'll make a useful hostage anyway. Drop it."

It took Aika a second to remember she was still carrying the rifle around her neck. She barely knew how to use a gun anyway, so she threw it away without a second thought.

"Good." The dictator sneered, and leaned forward to stand up.

For just a split second, there was a moment where the barrel of his weapon was pointed in a different direction, and he grunted lightly with exertion as he hauled his weighty midsection to his feet. To him it must have seemed like Aika teleported, but very suddenly she was in his face. Something crunched beneath her fingers, as she grabbed his arms and twisted them behind his back until she heard a loud pop. She used his own body weight against him, tripping him over and riding him to the ground.

Kim screamed and struggled, pulling his arms away from her and only barely managed to pull free, crawling forwards on his hands knees. Except that he didn't manage that. One wrist was still trapped in Aika's iron grip, and the other wrist was… also still trapped in Aika's grip. The dictator rolled over onto his back and stared at the palms of his hands in disbelief, ten feet away and still in her hold. Then his eyes went down to his arms, and he realised they both ended in bloody stumps just above the elbow.

"Oh." Aika dropped the flesh, and they flopped to the floor with a wet slap. "Oops. I didn't actually mean to-"

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggh!" He screamed, and screamed until his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he passed into unconsciousness.

Despite herself, Aika only really felt bad for losing control of her strength. _That's what you get for going after Souji._ There was still a strong temptation to kick him for good measure. Instead, she bent down to remove the white bracer from one of the hands. Putting it on, she adjusted it to the warriors' channel and pushed the talk button.

"Red, you there?"

"Yeah." She sounded frustrated. "Is that you, Blue?"  
"Yep. I've got the white bracer, and I've stopped Kim." She bit her lip before adding. "You wouldn't happen to know how to deal with… uh, an amputation I guess?"  
"WHAT?!" Red sounded panicked. "Why. are you okay?!"

"No I'm fine… Uh…" Aika debated what to say internally, before shrugging her shoulders and just saying it. "It's just… Kim's losing a lot of blood, and I don't really know how to stop it?"

"Is he still alive?!"

Stepping around the growing pool of crimson, Aika bent down over the face of the once great leader and pressed her fingers against his neck. After a few seconds, she couldn't find any kind of a pulse. Then she held her hand over his mouth to feel for warm air. Nothing.

Biting her lip, she raised the communicator to his mouth. "It does not seem like it."

There was a low groan of disbelief from Red. "Aika, you tore his arm off?!"

"...Both of them." She corrected him in a small voice.

"...You know, when I got out of bed this morning I didn't think I was going to help you assassinate a political leader. What if this starts a war?!"

_Oh, no…_ Aika thought to herself. Of course the North Koreans would retaliate to their beloved leader being killed inside his own home. Who knows what they might do?

_Wait. What if…?_ She sat up from where she was leaned against the wall. She raised the communicator to her lips again, and said, "I might have an idea."

* * *

Souji and Aika stepped out of the catapult into the secret base together. He surveyed the wreckage, and shot a disapproving glare at Aika, who could only blush and break eye contact. Slung over her shoulder was a large and clearly full duffel bag that seemed to be dripping something red on the floor. The two of them walked together to where a chubby, young looking man was bound and gagged. He was Kim Jong's body double, and even Souji had to admit the resemblance was remarkable.

He and Aika looked at eachother again, before he sighed and nodded.

After a moment, Aika crouched down in front of him and pulled the gag from his face. "What's going on?" The man demanded.

Rather than answer, Aika unzipped the duffle bag and showed its gruesome contents to him.

He immediately went pale, and turned his head to vomit.

"The king is dead." Aika intoned, before putting her hand on his shoulder in a tight, almost painful grip and she smiled at him without humor. To any outsider, it would clearly look as though she was making a threat. "Long live the king."


	29. 29 I AM THE BULLET

There was a small, easily missed flash of light in the air above Houston Texas, and Tailyellow emerged from it to hover far above the earth. She was floating higher than any mountain, even higher than any commercial plane would fly, kilometres and kilometres away from the ground far below. She was far too small and much too high up to be detected by the radars down below. She was a good student, so she knew all this and found it somewhat disappointing.

"Oh, if only there was someone to see this." She murmured as she began to shed her armour. The chunks of white enameled gold plating fell away, only to come together and form the shape of a large gun in the air behind her. Her pauldrons and missile packs slotted together with the breastplates and chain guns, until a large canon floated in the air just behind her. The last piece was a small pistol shaped plasma caster, that Yellow threw up for it to arc around and slot into the weapon and form it's trigger.

Scarcely able to wait with the anticipation roiling through her veins, she curled up into a little ball just in front of the canon. A manic gleam sparked in her eyes as she shouted aloud. "**Vultic Judgement!**"

Blue arcs of electricity poured off the weapon, and there was a roar of power as she was fired directly upwards towards the sky. Traveling at such speeds she rocketed past the blue border of Earth's atmosphere, the distant horizon fading and transitioning to a starry sky that surrounded her in all directions. Without the blue veil of Earth's atmosphere blocking her vision, yellow could finally see the great ring the Elemerians had built. Using the ribbon Elemera, she changed her angle to aim towards the large glowing section at the far end of it. It looked almost like an incredibly thin wedding ring, with the source of its power attached to one end of the structure in a large bunker.

She was traveling a greater distance than it took an astronaut to get to the moon, and where that journey took days she accomplished it in a matter of minutes. The astronaut would go by rocket ship, with all the safety measures imaginable in place, but she was doing it nearly naked and with no help possible, well outside the range of the secret base's spacejump catapult. If something went wrong, if she failed, there was no back up and no retrying.

For most people these thoughts would be daunting, but for Yellow they weren't even in her mind. High on her Tailsuit's side effect, all she could think about was just how fast she was going, and just how _hard_ the landing would be. The ring loomed larger and larger in her vision, hundreds of kilometres wide, with the power plant being it's sole visible feature from a distance.

The Elemerian's manning the device had no idea she was coming. One moment they were preparing to gloriously harvest all of the Earth's valuable attributes, and then in the next the roof exploded inwards. Yellow struck the metal of the deck with a boom and thunk that sent the various aliens flying off their feet, and tore up the floor in a ripple like wave.

"By the blemishless carapace of Ultimateguildy, what is that thing?!" A voice cried out as Yellow climbed to her feet, breathing heavily.

She surveyed her surroundings, seeing three insect themed Elemerians staring at her in disbelief. Most of her energy had been used in her journey here, but she was far from finished. With a deep throated grunt of exertion, she summoned up the only weapon she still could, a small plasma caster shaped like a handgun.

She went to fire it with her right hand, but found she couldn't raise it very high, and when she glanced across her entire arm was just hanging limp. With some effort, she reached across with her left hand and pulled the weapon out of her numb fingers.

"I know who that is!" One of the Elemerians shouted, taking a step backwards. "That's Tailyell-"

Three plasma bolts slammed into his chest, and he fell to the deck before exploding.

"You dare?!" One of the remaining ones shouted and pulled a massive two handed axe off his back. He then charged Yellow, swinging it in a wide arc towards her neck.

Yellow went to dodge, but her legs gave out under her and she inelegantly collapsed to the floor, though luckily the axe did miss her. Just firing those few shots had used up almost all of her last reserves of energy, and she still had to defeat these last Elermians.

"Die!" He cried and swung downwards at her, and Yellow desperately grabbed his leg and pulled. "Wha-?!" The large alien toppled over backwards.

Throwing herself forwards on her belly, Yellow all but crawled over the Elemerian and shoved her pistol directly in his face and squeezed the trigger. He exploded beneath her, and Yellow was flung her head over heels to slam into the deck on her back. Blackness was already pressing against the edges of her vision, and she realised she was about to pass out. Looking across the room, she just caught sight of the final alien reaching for her with her bare palms.

All she could do was squeeze the trigger of her gun, and the alien yelled as he was struck in the ankle and hopped backwards, holding his ankle. It was too much. Yellow was already about to pass out, and with no choice left she cancelled her transformation.

"Yooooouuu!" He howled with frustration, and hopped forward to take a swipe at Erina. Suddenly the giant insect man looked different in her eyes. With her mind cleared from the euphoria of being Yellow, her foe loomed large over her and his claws had enough power to take her head clean from its shoulders. Real fear shot through her, and she scrambled backwards just out of his reach.

"Come back here!" He snarled after her, still hopping on one foot.

Standing up, she turned and ran away, stumbling but staying on her feet as she windmilled her arms to keep balance. There was a ledge directly in front of her, one that she almost ran straight over in her panic. A massive drop dawned before her, the floor a distant kilometre away. She glanced about and realised the sheer size of the room that she was in, with all the walls kilometers away. There were other Elemerians in view on the other side of the abyss, their forms nothing but silhouettes shrunk and blurred by distance. In the middle of the floor far below was a column of blue glass, filled with arcing lightning. There were light grey stripes on the ground leading up to it, distinct in colour from the dark flooring around it. Far above her head, the roof looked like a hollow tinfoil ball that had been bent out of shape by someone jamming their finger into it. She could only assume that was where she crashed through the structure.

"Diiiiiiie!" The Elemerian behind her shouted, and Erina threw herself to one side just in time to avoid his outstretched claw. "Noooooooooooo!" He screeched as he overbalanced and toppled face first into the abyss.

Whatever his fate at the bottom was, Erina didn't see it, as she was pale faced and scrambling away from the ledge where one of her legs had terrifyingly gone over in the course of her evasion. It was only when she was far enough away from the edge that she breathed out and sat down to catch her breath.

Far away, on the other side of the abyss some Elemerians had noticed her and were beginning to move towards her. They were too far off to do anything right away, but they would reach her fairly soon at the speed they were moving.

It was obvious what she had to do. That glass column was a high tech powersource of some kind if her superhero shows were anything to judge by, and they hadn't led her astray so far. One more shot with the Yellow suit might be enough to knock her out, but it would also be enough to save the world.

Heaving herself back up to her feet, Erina concentrated for a moment and became Tailyellow once more. This time there was no need to hold back. With her armour and weapons all restored to her, she raised her rotating chain guns as missile pods unfolded over her chest. Larger canons emerged from her pauldrons on each shoulder, while smaller versions appeared on her hip. She aimed all of these weapons at the large structure and fired.

The glass column was torn to pieces in an instant, great columns of lightning breaking free of it and roasting attending Elemerians who exploded. Pieces of it rained to the floor, many of them larger than a school bus, and delicate internal parts became nothing but smoke and a shower of sparks.

That was all Yellow got to see. With all her energy expended, her eyes rolled up and she collapsed to the floor.

* * *

"Heavenly BACKHAND!" A glowing hammer was launched from Tailpink's hands, crossing the distance to the glowing reactor and shattering it into a thousand pieces. As the power within the machine began to destabilise, she turned and ran towards the open loading ramp of Twoearle's ship. Without delay, Twoearle closed the ramp and the ship took off immediately, moving out of range of the deadly fallout that shot from the power plant. Pink watched through the rear window as after a few minutes the light became smaller and smaller before disappearing entirely, leaving the ring intact but without power.

For Pink, the journey to Catyu's ring was far less eventful than her allies. The Elemerians hadn't tried to intercept her, and the few that had been in place to defend the power plant were garden variety. Despite the battle's she'd already fought that day they were pretty easily defeated. It was something of a disappointment, really. She hadn't even gotten to use her dual modules.

"Now what?" She asked Twoearle as she stepped onto the bridge of the ship.

"Now I'm going to have to figure out a way to move that stupid ring somewhere it won't cause any harm to future generations, but for now Catyu is safe."

"No, I mean what do _we _do now?"

Twoearle groaned and rubbed a hand over her face. "I don't know. We need to find out if Yellow succeeded on her end, and if she hasn't we've got a limited window to finish the job for her or Earth will lose it's attributes permanently."

"So why don't we just do that?"

"Because I need to find a way to get this ship." She patted her armrest. "To Earth in the next thirty minutes or so, and it's not big enough to go through the portal I constructed. Without it there's no way for us to get up to the ring quickly enough."

"Okay, I get it." She sat down and undid the transformation as she did. "Yeah, that's tricky."

"I know." Twoearle agreed. "Without a portal the fastest way to get to earth is a month long journey in between universes."

"Right…" Isabella hummed with understanding, then paused. "Wait. How did Orchidmantisguildy get to Earth so quickly from Catyu, then?"

Suddenly Twoearle shot up in her seat, and shouted loudly in an excited voice. "He must have built his own portal! After I moved the universes closer it would have been a lot easier for him!"

"So we just need to find the Elemerian portal?"

"Exactly!" Twoearle laughed maniacally and seized the ships controls. "I'm a genius!"

"I mean, I feel like I helped a lot there, but whatever." Isabella mumbled to herself.

"Now just to figure out where they're hiding their portal…" Twoearle brought up a tab that displayed a map of the solar system. "Let's see… Meowcury, Meows, Jupawter, hmm… Man this is a lot of cat puns."

Isabella raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What the heck is a 'cat'?"

"Catsanus, seriously?" Twoearle snorted and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I don't get the joke?" Isabella admitted.

"They'd need a lot of metal to build it, so that means it would have to be close to one of the asteroid fields, and it would probably be fairly close to the ring to make construction easier." Twoearle narrowed her search, before taking control of the craft and flying them towards the nearest asteroid field, just beyond Meows. Once she was close enough she began scanning with her sensors.

The entire time Isabella sat in the passenger's seat not really able to participate. At first she was excited about their journey through space, but the distance between celestial objects was so far that it left her with nothing to look at. She soon became bored with the usual starry horizon, and tried to play Armoured Galz on her phone only to discover they were out of range of the servers on Catyu.

"...Wow. Space is lame."

"Tell me about it."

It ended up taking them just shy of half an hour to finally locate the portal. It was built directly into the side of a large asteroid, with what looked like a large port for ships attached to it, though all the docks were empty. Twoearle only hesitated for long enough to double check the portal connected to Earth, before flying through its watery surface.

There was a similar port on the other side, and this one had a ship docked. From the window Isabella could see a few Ultiroids carrying sacks and crates up the loading ramp at the direction of a small number of much larger Elemerians. Isabella narrowed her eyes for a moment, squinting to make out the shape of one particular one over the distance.

"That's Orchidmantisguildy!" She barked into her communicator. "Red! You said you were going to deal with Orchidmantisguildy!"

Red's voice came back clearly after a few seconds of delay they were in the same solar system. "He ran away."

"Damn it!" Isabella snapped and ran down the hall.

"Where are you going?" Twoearle called out to her.

"I'm not letting that creep escape again!" Isabella snapped back over the communicator.

"What about the ring?"

"Just pick up Red! She can deal with it!"

Pink strode down the stairs to the loading bay, and yanked down the switch to open the ramp. There was a woosh of air, and without hesitation Pink leapt off the back of the ship, intending to land on the dock superhero style. Unfortunately, due to the low gravity of the asteroid, the effect was far less dramatic than she intended, and she scowled with irritation as she gently drifted to the ground and landed with a soft tap rather than the bang she hoped for.

Her landing was so soft the Ultiroids hadn't even noticed her arrival, as caught up as they were moving their valuable goods to the ship. Now that she was closer, Isabella could see that their cargo just looked like the contents of Kim's creepy collection. Why the heck would Elemerians want a bunch of fingernails and knotted hair anyway?

"Hey!" She yelled, and all the aliens turned to face her, and her eyes narrowed on the tall mantis man. "So you crawled away to live another day, _Cockroach_guildy."

One brown Elemerian with two long antennae pointed a finger at himself, confused. "Who, me?"

"She was talking to me." Orchidmantisguildy growled and shouldered past him towards the Twintail Warrior. "I wasn't expecting to see you here either, Princess!" He called out.

"Whatever." She summoned her hammer and stalked forwards. "No more posturing, no more games, and no more running. **YOU DIE HERE!**" With a roar she broke into a charge, raised her hammer up, and brought it down towards him.

"Sorry, Princess, but that wasn't in my plans." He took a step back and grabbed an Ultiroid by the neck while slamming his scythe into the ground with the other. The hook of his weapon sunk into the rock, while he brought the stunned little black alien up to block Tailpink's attack.

"Wha-?" Pink eyebrows furrowed with surprise, as the head of her hammer smashed into the Ultiroid's face and it exploded immediately. With so little gravity, Pink was immediately flung off her feet and into the open space above the asteroid. She flailed in the low gravity, expecting to fall down to its surface but she realised she wasn't slowing down as she was launched far from her foes.

Meanwhile, Orchidmantisguildy who had prepared for the explosion before hand sneered, and clung to his scythe that was lodged firmly in the rock. "Goodbye, Princess!"

"**ORCHIDMANTISGUILDY!**" She screamed, but without anything to hold onto all she could do was float away helplessly as the aliens continued stocking up their ship with looted leaving. "I'll get you one day! You hear me?! One day there'll be nowhere left for you to run!"

The alien waved a hand at her in a disparaging farewell, before calmly walking up the ramp to the ship. The door sealed behind him, and the last survivors of the combined invasion of Earth and Catyu fled, their ship vanishing out of sight in an instant.

"...Want me to come pick you up?" Twoearle asked over the communicator.

Pink slumped in place and groaned, before answering. "Yeah."

"...I mean it's kinda funny when you think about it." Twoearle continued as the ship came closer. "I mean you were so convinced this was your moment, and he just totally embarrassed you."

"Twoearle, don't be mean." Red's voice came over the coms, chiding in tone.

Wait, so if Red heard all that. "...Senpai did you hear that?"

There was a moment's pause before Aika replied. "I'm sorry, Pink."

Deflated, Tailpink clicked off her communicator. _The humiliation!_ She grit her teeth and clenched her fists with frustration before howling into the void. "**OOOOOOORCHIDMANTISGUIIIIILDY!**"


	30. 30 Dramatic Revelation!

Erina had been quiet ever since she got back from the Earth Ring. The Yellow Tailsuit had protected her against the worst of the destabilising power plant's energies, but Twoearle had needed to take the suit in for some repairs, leaving the Twintail Warriors two members down for a while. All of the members of the team sat at a table for six in cafe Adolescenza. Normally whenever so many loud and colourful personalities were together things would be quite lively, but all the other tailsuit warriors joined Erina in her reticence, most of them being quite exhausted. The person making the most noise at the moment was Miharu Mitsuka, who was moving about in the kitchen out back, throwing together a breakfast for the victorious warriors.

Sora hadn't had time to sleep since the battle, so was currently still a girl, and she was also the least exhausted of the warriors, which was why she spoke up when no one else would. "So… do we want to do the debriefing now, or do you guys just want to eat and go home?"

"Later." Twoearle grunted, hunched over a napkin that she was scribbling on with a pen. "When I have some idea of what I'm going to do about those stupid rings."

"Can't they just stay where they are?" Sora asked. "Aren't they disabled?"

"They're more or less stationary, but our orbit isn't the exact same every year, so there's a risk Earth and Catyu will crash into them sometime in the next few years." Twoearle replied. "But maybe the ring will just drift towards the sun because it doesn't have an orbit? I don't know, just let me figure this out."

"Alright." Sora hesitated, before asking. "And when can we expect the Blue and Yellow Tailsuits back up and running?"

"Oh, I completely forgot about that." Twoearle groaned and threw her pen down. "I don't know? Can I get back to you on that? Oh, and I still need to build a bigger spaceship! There's so much work to doo_ooo_." She whined.

A twinge of sympathy pricked at Sora, and she sighed glumly. "Alright, moving on." Looking across the table, she caught a pained look on Aika's face. She seemed to be grimacing and clutching her side. "Are you okay?"

"I might have broken a rib when I was fighting that Ultiroid." Aika's face was screwed up as she probed the bottom left of her chest.

"Oh, that's not good." Twoearle suddenly sat up, looking at her with concern. "Does it hurt when you breath?"

"A bit." Aika admitted. "It was fine when I was running around, but it's gotten worse since I've sat down.

"Ahhhh, I'm not a doctor." Twoearle stood up and made her away around the table, crouching down to examine the injury, and moving Aika's hands away. "Let me see."

"Should we call a doctor?" Isabella stood up, sounding worried.

"Can we call one?" Aika grimaced. "How are we going to explain this?"

"Just call it a karate injury." Sora answered. _How could Aika be worried about that at a time like this?_

"That makes sense I guess. If you call Grandpa he can cover for me. His number is on my phone."

"Where's your phone?" Sora asked.

"In my bedroom."

"I'll go get it!" Isabella volunteered, and ran out the door.

Soon Isabella returned, and Aika called her grandfather who arrived in his car within minutes. Kenta stayed just long enough to confirm his granddaughter was injured and shoot a withering glare at Sora, before the two of them left to go to the hospital together.

"Is she going to be okay?" Iasbella asked, concern painted over her features.

"She was tough enough to run around for half an hour with that broken rib, so she should be okay." Twoearle pointed out, though there was a hint of disbelief in her voice. "The barbarian will be fine, I'm sure."

"I think that's just enough for today." Sora sank back into her chair. "After breakfast we should all just go home I guess."

"Is it okay if I come back to check on senpai?" Isabella looked at Sora.

"Um, we still need to have one warrior on each side, don't we?" Erina murmured.

Sora shrugged. "I can babysit your side of the portal if you want to visit her for a bit."

Isabella hesitated, before saying, "Th-thank you."

"It's fine. It's not the first time she's been injured, she's always been…"

"A monster?" Twoearle offered.

"No she's not!" Isabella objected, and looked to Sora to back her up.

"..." Sora thought there might be a more polite way to phrase it, but Aika was always strong and violent. The only reason Souji had learned karate as a child was that he was sick of her beating him up. Not to mention she was incredibly short tempered, and it wasn't always exactly clear what would set her off, even to her childhood friend. _Geeze, even her grandfather tried to warn me she was dangerous… _"Aika is my best friend."

"Yeah, and she's a monster who happens to be your best friend." Twoearle rolled her eyes. "If I was anyone else she would have literally killed me a dozen times over."

"Yeah, and I'm sure you deserved it!" Isabella grumbled and folded her arms.

Surprisingly, Twoearle actually looked guilty at that and broke eye contact.  
"...You could be doing less to provoke her." Sora pointed out.

Twoearle didn't answer, just sitting back down at the table.

"And, it's probably not a good idea to go calling your friend a monster, right?" Sora continued, taking a seat at the table.

"You only don't see it because you-" Twoearle hesitated, before continuing. "Because you love her."

"What?!" Isabella burst out, looking at Sora with disbelief. "You're in love with Senpai?!"

"No, no! I'm not!" Sora waved her arms to cut the younger girl off. "I mean, I do, but just as a friend! Aika's like a sister to me."

All at once four people groaned simultaneously in pain and annoyance. Erina, Twoearle, and Isabella all looked frustrated and disbelieving, and when Sora glanced over her shoulder, she noticed her mother giving her the same look from behind the counter.

"What?" She asked in confusion. "What did I say?"

"'She's like a sister to me.'" Isabella shook her head. "Every single time a character says that in fiction I just want to punch the writer."

"I know, right?" Twoearle banged her fist against the table. "See what I've been dealing with?"

"It's the worst." Erina agreed.

"I can't believe my own son would say something so horrible. Or, daughter. Whatever." Miharu shook her head in disappointment. "Where did I go wrong raising you?"

That was definitely not the reaction Sora had been expecting. "I don't get it, what?"

"Look." Twoearle began. "When was the last time you saw an anime or a romantic comedy, or even just any piece of media in general when someone uttered those words and to have one of those characters not be in love with the other?"

"But that's just fiction!"

"I wanna punch her." Isabella grunted, glaring at Sora.

Sora frowned back at her. "Well, don't."

"I shouldn't be telling you this." Twoearle gave up, shaking her head. "It's self defeating."

Now Sora was even more confused. "How?"

Twoearle sat up and stared at her in disbelief. "What do you mean 'how'?!"

Sora wondered what was even going on? "I'm sorry? I just don't know?"

"_HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY NOT KNOW?!_" Twoearle exploded. "Have I been too subtle? What did you think I was trying to do when I snuck into your bedroom at night?!"

Sora cringed at her loud voice. "Okay, okay. I know you were trying to seduce me, just calm down."

"And why would I do that, huh?" Twoearle demanded. "For what reason would I try to sleep with you?"

The room fell silent as Sora sat there quietly, afraid to say it. She swallowed, before finally admitting, "Because you're in love."

No look of satisfaction crossed Twoearle's face, she just slumped back in her chair, and nodded, eyes growing wet. "I always wanted to know if you were dense or just a jerk." She sniffled, and grabbed a napkin to dab at her tears. "But now I realise it doesn't really matter, because they both hurt like hell, you know."

Not a word was said for the next five minutes. Sora looked up to see Twoearle and Erina both pointedly ignoring everyone else, while Isabella sat there wide eyed, looking like she'd walked in on something she shouldn't have.

It was too much. Sora stood up, and turned to Isabella. "Y-you wanted to visit Aika, right?"

She nodded once, slowly.

"H-how about I keep an eye on that Catyu side of the portal, for now, and you, uh, you go do that?"

"Sure, I guess." Isabella answered, uncertainty in her voice.

"Great." Sora called out to her mother. "Mum, can you bring my food down to the secret base?"

Miharu looked disappointed with her, but nodded.

Sora fled the room without another word.

* * *

The trip to the hospital had played out exactly like Aika expected. They spent hours in a waiting room until eventually a doctor saw them, examined her briefly, then sent her to get an Xray taken. That took another few hours, but the radiation revealed that Aika's rib was merely cracked, not broken, and would recover on its own even without treatment. The doctor assigned her six weeks of light exercise and some mild painkillers, before showing her the door.

"That was a waste of time." Aika grunted as her grandfather drove them home. She was leaning against the car door with her face pressed up against the window, watching the sun set over the mountains through the glass. "I may as well have just toughed it out."

"Just be glad you didn't have to go in for surgery." Kenta replied.

Intellectually she knew that she was lucky to escape without serious injury, but internally she couldn't help but wish she'd just spent the day at home, relaxing with the other warriors.

"Speaking of which." Kenta continued. "This is the second time in a week that you've been a casualty of this war."

It was pretty obvious to Aika where this conversation was going. "Grandpa, I'm not quitting."

"I would never ask you to do that." She saw his reflection frown in the window. "There are many others who love twintails now. Perhaps they would serve you better than your current team."

"This is about Souji again, isn't it?"

"This is twice now he's failed you."

"Look, it's as much my fault as it is anyone else's."

"So it _is _his fault, at least partly."

"That's not what I said."

"But that is still the meaning of what you have said." Kenta's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. "He's not strong enough for you."

"And who is?" Aika challenged right back, turning in her seat to face her grandfather. "Huh? He's literally the strongest warrior in Earth's history, and I'm a close second."

Kenta breathed out through his nose, long and slow. "That's not what I meant."

"But it's absolutely true." A sigh of frustration escaped Aika. "Grandpa, you've literally had since I was born to tell me what you think about him. What changed?"

"I learned that he liked to run about cross dressing as a little girl, that's what happened." The man answered matter of factly, and she could tell he was keeping his voice as neutral as he could. "And then he dragged you off to join him in your swimwear."

Aika rolled her eyes. "You make it sound like the alternative wasn't the end of the world."

"...Do you like dressing up like that? More importantly, does he?"

"Oh, come on." Aika groaned. "Yes, he might, but I always knew who he was. I always knew _what_ he was, and I spend all my pocket money on hair products because _I'm that way too._"

The man grimaced at that.

"Besides, I'm glad we share interests." Aika went to cross her arms, but hesitated when her ribs twinged. "And whatever goes on between me and him isn't really your business anyway. You're not my father."

"...That is true." Kenta conceded after a long pause. "But I can't help but notice you're ashamed enough to hide all this _from_ your father."

Rather than answer that, Aika simply shut her mouth. She realised nothing she could say would change his mind, and nothing he could say would change hers. They were both stubborn beyond all reason. He did raise at least one good point though…

The rest of the drive home was silent, except for the car engine and the sounds of other vehicles on the road. At that moment Aika was too angry to feel sad, though she knew later she'd regret the way the conversation went.

After just a minute their car pulled into the Tsube family's driveway, and Aika carefully stood up so as not to jostle her ribs unnecessarily.

"Senpai, are you okay?" Isabella called from the front yard of Adolescenza.

Apparently she was still here. "I'm fine." Aika called back to her. "Just a cracked rib, it'll heal on its own."

"Oh, I was so worried." She slumped into the fence.

"Where's Souji?" Aika asked, looking past her.

An expression of disappointment, or maybe irritation flickered over Isabella's face, so quickly Aika almost didn't see it. The younger teen's tail was twitching back and forth while pointed at the ground while she answered. "Oh, uh, Catyu. He and Twoearle had an argument."

What could that have been about? "What over?" Aika asked.

"Uh…" Isabella hesitated, before answering. "Maybe you should hear it from one of them…?" She perked up, smiling. "But um, Senpai." She shyly curled a finger through her hair. "D-do you have time? C-can I talk to you about something?"

On the one hand she did want to help Isabella with whatever it was, but it didn't seem like the issue was particularly dire. From the way she was acting, it might even just be an excuse to hang out with her 'senpai'.

Glancing over her shoulder, Aika saw her grandfather reverse out the driveway without ever stepping into the house and frowned. That was very rude of him. "Sorry, but I have to talk to my family right now." Aika looked back to see Isabella's forlorn expression. "I promise I'll make time later, though. Maybe not tonight, but I'm sure we'll have time tomorrow."

"Sure." Isabella looked forlorn for a second, and then concerned. "Is everything okay, though?"

"Uh… Just have to correct a mistake, I guess." Aika breathed out. "I'll see you later."

"A-alright? Bye."

Aika felt Isabella's eyes on her back as she crossed the yard, but she put it out of mind. Whatever she needed, and whatever the argument between Souji and Twoearle was about would have to be dealt with later. Right now, she needed to have a long overdue conversation with her family.

When she walked through the front door of her house, she found her mother and father sitting on the couch in front of the television, and her elder sister studying for university on the dining room table. Grandpa must have stepped out back.

"Everyone." They all looked to her at once. Her throat was dry and she swallowed as a nervous butterfly found the entrance to her stomach. "Uh… There's no good way to say this, so I'm just going to speak plainly… I'm Tailblue."


	31. 31 TITLE

Over the last year or so, Twoearle had developed a pretty effective approach to deal with any feelings of helplessness or loss. She would sit herself down in the middle of half a dozen computer monitors, each displaying a different kind of pornography and treat herself to an evening of shallow ecstasy under the cold light of her computer screens, before cleaning up and going to bed. Tonight this technique didn't work out so well. The first thing she saw when she went to check the images she had saved for such an occasion were three folders labeled, 'Tailred', 'Souji', and 'Sora'. She found herself not so much distracted from her feelings as suddenly reminded of them.

She ended up abandoning sleep entirely, spending all morning working on equations, trying to figure out an efficient way to move those stupid rings. Eventually she grew tired of that, and revised the blueprints for the Tailcruiser she was building. It would be a much larger, weapon equipped battleship capable of moving a greater number of human passengers greater distances than the smaller one she stole from the Elemerians. This one would hopefully also be a great deal more comfortable.

It was only once she was done settling into that, that Twoearle suddenly remembered they needed the Blue and Yellow tailsuits repaired before she did anything else. With a groan she dragged herself out of her chair to go to the maintenance room.

A lot of the components of the suits were incredibly small, much too small to be worked on by humans hands. Rather than touch them directly, she had to insert the bracers into machines through which she remotely controlled the nearly microscopic tools that actually worked on the bracers directly. It was a painstaking task that required incredible precision and attention to detail. It was a good distraction, at least until there was a ding from the main room and the elevator doors parted.

When Twoearle poked her head into the main room she found Isabella walking up to the control panel to pull up a chair. The catgirl sat down heavily before putting her feet up.

"What are you doing here?" Twoearle asked.

Isabella glanced over. "Just killing time. What's this world's equivalent to Mytube?"

"Yourtube."

Without another word, she turned and typed that into the search bar, before bringing up the website. Twoearle watched for a second before shrugging and going back to her work. If this was how Isabella wanted to spend her days, that was her business. She went to start working on the tailsuits again, only for a loud J-pop song to blare over the bases PA, causing her to nearly jerk the controls.

With a huff, Twoearle stood up and made her way back to the main room. "I'm working here, turn it down!"

"Sorry." Isabella replied without looking back. "Do you have a set of headphones?"

"There." She pointed. "In the top drawer." With that, Twoearle went back to work. Only about ten minutes went by before there was a knock at the door. "What now?" Twoearle demanded.

"Can I borrow your credit card?"

"What do you even need it for?" Twoearle scowled.

"None of the channels I like are in your world, and Armoured Galz doesn't have any servers here on Earth, so I downloaded this other mobile game, but it's like, super slow, so I was gonna buy some gems to speed up ship production? But then my money is only good on Catyu, so…?" She held out a hand, expectantly.

Twoearle stared at her in disbelief. "No."

"Why not?" Isabella scowled.

"Because I don't have enough money for you to waste it on gems for your pay to win mobile scam." Twoearle scoffed.

Now Isabella just looked confused. "'Not enough?'"

_Goddamn billionaires._ "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Isabella's face darkened and she folded her arms in a defensive posture. "Why should I go to school? We're going to space soon enough anyway, right? It's not like I'll need my highschool diploma to fight aliens."

She actually had a point there, not that Twoearle would admit it. "But then why do you have to be down here annoying me?"

"I'm bored." Isabella shrugged.

"Then go back to Catyu and waste your dad's money."

"I can't." Isabella folded her arms. "Sora's still hiding from you on the other side, remember? So we need one active warrior on each world."

"Then go play with Aika."

"I was gonna, but then she got in a big argument with her family. I could hear it from the front yard."

Twoearle sighed, turning back to her work. "Well then just sit quietly and don't bother me." Awkward silence filled the room, only broken up by the sound of the moving mechanical parts of Twoearle's repair machine. She managed another thirty seconds before being interrupted again.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm fixing the broken tailsuits." Twoearle replied.

"Huh… How do they even work?" Isabella asked curiously.

"There's no way a middle school _dropout_ could understand it." Twoearle murmured shortly, trying to focus on her work.

"...You're sixteen, right?"

"What about it?" Twoearle groaned.

"So this would be your first year of highschool, right?"

"I don't see where you're going with this."

"So, if you spend sixty days traveling in space to get to Earth, and you were the warrior of your world for about a month before that, would you have even been able to get your middle school diploma?"

"I was a child prodigy." Twoearle replied, smugly. "I got my doctorate from a university when I was eleven."

"So you never even _went _to middle school, then?" Isabella smirked victoriously. "So I think there _is _a way a middle school dropout could understand."

_Smug little…_ "Fine. Being more specific, I don't think _you_ would understand with your tiny little unwrinkled brain."

Isabella folded her arms with irritation. "Wanna bet?"

"Look, I don't have time for this argument." Twoearle put her controls down and stood up. "I have to design a brand new spaceship, dismantle two aliens rings with a diameter wider than the Earth's in two different universes, and repair two different Tailsuits using technology that hasn't been invented on this planet yet. That's not even getting into moving all the materials I'll need to build the spaceship into space, or designing and building the army of drones I'll need. Of course I have to source some decent attributes to power the freaking spaceship, because all we've got left down here are crap ones like Librarian!" Twoearle breathed out. "There's no way you could help with any of that, so why don't you just do me a favor and stop getting in the way?"

Isabella frowned. "Couldn't you just use the materials from the rings to build the spaceship?"

"Use the rings?!" Twoearle snapped, standing up. "Use the rings? If it was that easy I'd just…" She paused. "Just use the rings?" Why exactly wouldn't she just use the rings again? It was a really obvious solution, but somehow she hadn't even considered it.  
Not done, Isabella continued with another suggestion. "Also, if you need some decent attributes, can't you just pull the twintail elemera from the White Tailsuit? Isn't that, like, the best attribute?"

"It... is." Twoearle blinked slowly. _And there's at least two of them in there, which should be enough to meet most of the ships power needs._ "And I could just use them, couldn't I?"

"We don't have another twintail warrior to use it, anyway." There was a moment of silence, before Isabella pointed out, "Sounds like I helped you."

Twoearle breathed out through her nose, and considered the catgirl. Those weren't particularly difficult solutions. Honestly, Twoearle should have thought of them herself, but somehow she had missed them. A combination of tiredness and stress had caused the mad scientist to create a lot more work for herself. Even if Isabella wasn't exactly a genius, just a second pair of eyes might be handy…

Twoearle folded her arms. "You don't want to go to school anymore?"

She shook her head.

"...I guess the work is getting to the point where I could use… an assistant." Twoearle looked over her shoulder at her the stack of papers on her desk, sitting next to an empty coffee mug. _Just having someone to bring me coffee from up stairs could save time. _"Do you wanna help out?"

Isabella smirked. "Sure. If you'll admit that I was right.

"Don't push it."

* * *

For the last few hours of her self imposed study time, Erina hadn't managed to get anything done. Her books sat open on the desk in front of her, next to which were pens, a lamp, and a red Super Ranger bobblehead and all she'd managed to achieve was tap it's head. With a sigh, she closed the book and stood up, stretching for a moment before looking at herself in the mirror.

Short. And childish. Erina pouted, seeing exactly what she expected, but still unreasonably hoping for something else… Maybe someone a little more like Tailyellow. For what had to be the dozenth time, she wondered if her alter ego was a premonition of the future, or just a wishful fantasy.

The other that caught her attention in her reflection was the curled tips of her golden twintails. She looked from her reflection in the mirror, to the hair in her hands, rubbing it between her fingers and frowning. They were a symbol of her family, stretching back to the era when they were collecting taxes from peasants at the end of a sword. If she truly hated twintails she wouldn't be able to be a tailsuit warrior. That was what Twoearle had said. So in the end that meant she loved them. Maybe if given the choice she would have even wanted them over the alternative. They weren't a bad hairstyle, they even suited her childish figure quite nicely. In the end though, she didn't choose them.

They were chosen for her.

With another sigh, she let the hair fall from her hand, and looked at the yellow bracer on her wrist. At least in this regard she did have a choice. She could go to space with her friends, leaving the Earth and all its responsibilities behind, or she could stay and inherit the clan from her mother.

She'd been putting this decision off for a long time, but recent events pushed it closer than ever before. It was the strangest thing. Of all the places on Earth, she hadn't imagined she'd find a kindred spirit in North Korea. Kim Jong had also been born to inherit a great weight, with countless family members competing to claim what was his, and he too had been offered freedom by his tailsuit. If that was where the comparisons ended, Erina would have been uncomfortable enough just feeling empathy for the horrible, evil man, but that wasn't all. In the end, Kim Jong had abandoned those responsibilities, even threatening to kill his own citizens in pursuit of his freedom, and now Erina could only wonder what would happen to her mother if she left?

It was a lot like her twintails in the end. She loved them, but she also wondered how different things would be without them. The only people in the halls of her family's traditional style manor were a few servants, working hard to keep any dust or swelling away from the wood. They were all dressed as maids, much like Mikoto who attentively trailed along behind Erina.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" She asked.

"Everything's fine." Erina lied, smiling back at her. "I'm just… thinking, I guess."

"I see…" Mikoto hesitated, before asking. "Is it about Souji?"

Erina winced. That was another thing she had been worrying over. _Does he know about my feelings? He has to by now. Has he just been ignoring me? Has he been ignoring all three of us?_ Currently, their leader was still hiding on Catyu, trying to avoid all of the other warriors. It couldn't go on forever. Eventually Isabella would have to go home.

At the pained look on Erina's face, Mikoto spoke up again. "Milady, if… if there's something wrong, I can promise you my discretion."

Erina blinked at that, before smiling. "I know, Mikoto." After all, she hadn't told Mrs Shindo anything about the tailsuits or the other warriors. Still, she hesitated to tell Mikoto about any of this. Not because she didn't trust her, but there was just some part of her that was worried this was a personal matter, not appropriate to burden hired help with. "It's just this is a… personal, concern."

"...If I may offer some advice milady."

"I… I would be grateful."

"Milady, If this is wrong, or improper, then I apologise, but… if you're currently struggling with whether to leave or not, I feel like I should point out that there are other people who will be affected by that decision."

_That's true, isn't it?_ Erina realised. If she were to leave with Souji and the others, Mikoto would either come with them or have to find new work… There was a strangely hopeful note when she asked, "Then, what did you want to do, Mikoto?"

The maid bowed her head apologetically. "I think you've misunderstood me, milady. Whatever you decide to do, I will happily accompany you, but… if you're thinking of leaving, you should talk to your mother."

Erina's stomach plummeted, and she took a sharp breath, looking away.

Mikoto kept her head low. "Forgive me, milady, but she is your mother. She does love you, and you will be leaving for months, if not years."

Compulsively, Erina swallowed as her mouth suddenly felt dry, and she turned around. "I'll… I'll think about it."

She didn't see Mikoto straighten up, before she continued to aimlessly wander the halls of the manner. As she did, she realised Mikoto was right. It really was only a matter of time until she had to work up the courage to talk with her mother. To simply leave without even an explanation would be a terrible betrayal. Ever since she first put on the suit it was inevitable that her mother would find out eventually, but somehow just an hour ago that time felt impossibly far away. Now it seemed like the truth would have to come out tomorrow, or even today if her mother wasn't too busy.

Somehow, a sense of dread settled over Erina, and clung to her even as she lay in bed and stared at the ceiling that night.

* * *

Over the last few hours, Isabella had helped Twoearle about the lab to the best of her ability, and discovered that she wasn't really that much use. Sometimes she would hold something down while Twoearle worked on it, like the other end of a tape measure, or a mechanical piece that had to be kept still, and other times she would fetch coffee or nod along as Twoearle spoke her thoughts aloud. A lot of what Twoearle was saying, Isabella straight up didn't understand, and when she asked for clarification she usually received an equally confusing explanation.

"Do you have a workbook for me or something?"

"I don't have time to get one of those." Twoearle grunted, twisting at a wrench and finding the screw on the other side stuck. "Damn it, where's Aika when you need her? I can't budge this thing."

"Want me to try?"

"Why not." Twoearle mumbled. "I doubt your that much stronger than I am, though?"

Isabella just smirked and transformed into Tailpink.

"...Whatever, just don't break it." Twoearle rolled her eyes. "Righty tighty, lefty loosey."

For Pink it was as easy as a flick of the wrist to loosen the screw, and she transformed back into Isabella before continuing to undo it. Twoearle watched in silence as she did, before stepping in to take over, removing the panel on the back of the box before raising her penlight to look inside.

"So what is this thing, anyway?" Isabella asked, looking at the malformed hollow metal box as she took her seat again. She could see what looked like a footprint that had caved in part of its front, exposing wiring and circuitry all through the inside. One side of the machine had what looked like a dummy's head stuck to it, as well as robotic arms.

"This was a robot I built to defend myself from Aika." Twoearle answered over her shoulder. "And I'm looking for parts I can scan and replicate for the droids I'm going to build. Hopefully it will be easier than building everything from scratch."

Isabella nodded, glancing at the damage. "I guess it didn't work very well."

"That freak tore through it like Tissue paper." Twoearle breathed out with a sigh. "An entire evening's work, completely wasted."

"Huh." Isabella frowned.

Twoearle pulled a circuit from the box and examined it more closely under the light.

They lapsed into silence for a moment, and Isabella's gaze wandered to the other side of the secret base, to the door of the room that contained the Catyu portal. Souji, or Sora, whichever it was right now, was still hiding on the other side. She thought about earlier that day, and the argument around breakfast.

'_Like a sister to me.'_

She scowled at the memory. What a stupid thing to say. How could so many girls fall in love with such an insensitive jerk? Especially one that went around spouting off crap like that. _How could someone as cool and great as Senpai love a total _loser _like that?_

She glanced down at Twoearle, who's upper torso was completely inside the robot, with only her shapely backside sticking out.

"So you're in love with Souji, right?" Isabella asked.

There was a bang, and the robot rattled. After a second, Twoearle reversed out of it, clutching her head and wincing as her eyes watered. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Isabella shrugged, and swallowed, glancing away. "I'm just... wondering what someone might like about... him, I guess."

When she glanced back, Iasebella found Twoearle giving her a smug look.

"What? It's a normal question." She folded her arms defensively. "I mean, you and Erina, and Senpai all like him, but… like, what's so great about him?"

Twoearle chuckled. "Why don't you ask me what you really want to know?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Isabella snapped, looking away.

"Yes, you dooooo~" Twoearle singsonged. "And to answer _that_ question, you don't need me. You can find out the truth yourself just fine."

"You're crazy, what are you talking about?"

"Look, if you want to know if you'll ever get to be _souer _with your beloved senpai, there's one person you can ask." Twoearle raised a finger towards a computer screen. "And she's on her way down right now."

Isabella followed the direction she was pointing, and saw a security camera feed that showed the inside of an elevator. Aika was standing in the middle of it, her body tilted slightly awkwardly to one side to avoid putting pressure on her ribs.

"I can't ask her about that!" Isabella yelled, jumping up to her feet.

"Why not?"

"Because-" Isabella grimaced. "Because she'll say no."

"Maybe." Twoearle agreed, standing up to her full height and stretching her back. Her large breasts wobbled as she did, before she breathed out and stood straight. "But it's better to deal with it now than to wait for her to realise you have feelings." She grimaced, looking miserable for a moment. "I mean, look. Not confessing my feelings immediately didn't exactly work very well for me, did it?"

"B-but…"

"I'll give you two a moment of privacy." Twoearle turned and walked into her office. She called over her shoulder. "Do yourself a favor and just get it over with. Don't make the mistake I did." There was a click, and she locked the door behind herself.

Half a second later, there was a ding and the elevator opened. There was a tremor of nervousness in Isabella's belly as Aika walked into the room.

"Hey, Isabella. Where's Twoearle?" She greeted.

"Sh-she's just in her office." Isabella answered with her best faux casual tone of voice.

"Is something wrong?" Aika asked with a worried frown.

Isabella quickly searched for an excuse. "Uh… yeah, just um… there was an argument after you left this morning. And uh, I guess I'm still on edge."

"Oh." Aika's eyebrows came together with concern. "What was the argument about?"

"Uh… what about you, senpai?" Isabella deflected. "I heard you arguing with your parents?"

"Oh, well I told them that I was Tailblue- Don't worry, I didn't tell them about anyone else- And uh… they threatened to send me to boarding school?" Aika chuckled, scratching her neck nervously. "And then I told them that wouldn't really change anything because my alien friend built a teleporter."

"That… sounds awkward."

"It was." Aika breathed out. "I'm sure we can figure things out once they've calmed down, anyway." Once again her eyebrows came together. "But are you sure you're okay? You seem nervous."

Isabella bit her lip, looking away. She glanced over at Twoearle's locked door on her left, then to the door on her right, through which Souji was hiding. She swallowed, looking at the floor.

"Isabella?"

_Why is everyone being so cowardly about their feelings?_ They were all just trying to avoid pain, and in the end all any of the other warriors had managed was to prolong it. _Even senpai should just tell Souji the truth, already. _Twoearle might have been a hypocrite and a coward, but that didn't mean she was wrong.

"S-s-senpai, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Of course." Aika answered without hesitation.

"C-can…" Isabella swallowed compulsively, her pulse rising as her mouth dried out. "Ah-are you free tomorrow?"

Aika paused. "For what?"

"For… a date?"

"..."

At the silence, Isabella looked up to see a cautious look on Aika's face. "Senpai?"

"What kind of date?" Aika asked, softly. "As friends?"

Isabella broke eye contact again, looking down and shaking her head no. "I mean as… as two people wh-who are… dating."

Silence filled the room, except for the hum of Twoearle's computers. For a long moment, Isabella was paralyzed like that, staring at the floor, waiting for the axe to fall, but hoping it might not. After an unbearable ten seconds had passed, Isabella looked up.

On Aika's face was a look of sympathy and concern, one that spoke of compassion, but not interest. It was not a look that said yes. Instead, it said, "I'm sorry."

Isabella looked down again, tears welling in her eyes. She nodded, breathing in a sharp hitch that almost turned to a sob. "Th-that's what I expected. I mean, I am a girl, and you're uh… you have a thing for Souji, so…"

"Isabella." Aika breathed out, hesitantly reaching out to touch her shoulder.

"N-no, it's fine." Isabella jerked away from her touch. "It's only natural, right? I'll, uh… I'll just…" She looked for something to say, but couldn't find anything. Whatever word she wanted to say was caught in her throat, and she turned away, hiding her face. "It was a bad time to ask, you know? I should have been more considerate. You just had that fight with your family, so you don't have time for something…" She paused to disguise a sob as a cough. "S-s-something silly like that."

"It's not silly, Is-"

"It is." Isabella cut across her. "It was just a stupid one sided crush, and I'll get over it." She sniffled, drawing in a long breath, as she wiped under her nose and grimaced when her hand came away with snot. "I, uh, I need a handkerchief, you don't want to see me like this."

"Isabella-" Aika began with sympathy in her voice.

"I'll be back." Isabella tried to laugh, but it didn't sound quite right to hair. "Don't worry about me, I'll be… uh… fine."

That was about all she could take. Without another word, Isabella turned and ran through the portal.


	32. 32 A Lil DnM

The last of Isabella's pink tail disappeared through the door and she was gone, leaving behind nothing but a lingering guilt in the pit of Aika's stomach. Her immediate instinct was to chase after her young friend and try to comfort her, but she worried that would leave a mixed message or even just hurt her worse. She stood there frozen, for almost a minute afterwards before sighing and shaking her head. What else was she supposed to do?

Maybe the best thing she could do for Isabella was to give her privacy. That was what she hoped, anyway.

The door to Twoearle's office slid open, and the mad scientist poked her head out. "I half expected you to screech something about her being a pervert and suplex her through the floor."

Aika scowled at her. "I wouldn't do that."

Twoearle gave her a disbelieving look. "Wouldn't you?"

Aika merely sighed, and glanced back to the portal room. "I actually came here to talk to Souji, but…"

"Not a good time for that?" Twoearle shrugged. "Well, if you're free, I could use some help here."

Aika followed her back into the office, to find what looked like a heap of scrap metal sitting on the table. It took her a moment to recognise it as the old robot she destroyed in the early days after meeting Twoearle.

"What's this here for?"

"I'm going to build some droids that can build more droids, until I have enough to build a spaceship for us."

"Huh." Aika frowned. "What will you do if they try to assimilate the Earth or whatever?"

Twoearle rolled her eyes. "There's a less than one percent chance that could ever happen, and I can't build an entire spaceship by hand, you know? We're gonna need them anyway. Besides, even if they go rogue on us I doubt they'll be a match for _you_. Do me a favor and carry this to the scrap room behind the dock, will ya?"

Technically, Aika wasn't supposed to strain her ribs, but she barely felt the weight of the large metal box as she carried it across the lab. When she came back she found Twoearle working on what looked like a series of joints for the robot's arms and legs.

"Isabella mentioned you and Souji had an argument?" Aika asked after standing and watching for a moment. "Is everything okay?"

"It wasn't just between me and him." Twoearle grumbled.

"What was it about?" Aika pressed.

"Not much, just…" Twoearle grimaced. "Confessing my feelings to him, I guess you could say."

"What?!" Aika gaped in shock. "D-d-did you really?"

"Relax." Twoearle didn't look back at her, continuing to work with her hands. "I went down in flaming wreckage."

"O-oh." Aika felt a wave of relief wash over her, followed by guilt for being so happy about her friend's failure. "I-I mean, are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Twoearle answered nonchalantly. "I knew I never really stood a chance in the first place, so why would I be upset?" She finally turned her head to smile cheerfully at Aika.

"Twoearle…"

"Don't worry about it." She chuckled, and went back to her work. "Besides, this is good news for you. Now you only have to worry about Erina, and between you and me, I don't think he's as excited by her masochist routine as he is disturbed by it."

"But what about you-"

"So yeah." Twoearle interrupted her. "It looks to me like you've won the Souji-bowl by elimination. Congratulations."

Aika swallowed uncomfortably, and looked away.

"God knows what he sees in a flat chested little psycho like you, anyway." Twoearle continued. "But hey, maybe at the wedding you can throw me the bouquet before you carry him across the threshold." Her voice started out as cheerful as it had been for the entire conversation, but there was a bitter note creeping in towards the end. "You should wear the suit, Sora will look a lot better in a dress than you would."

"Twoearle-"

"Souji would too, for that matter."

"Please, st-"

"Maybe when he gets bored with you he could have an affair with me on the side-"

"_ENOUGH_!" Aika brought her fist down on the table, and smashed right through it. All the parts Twoearle had been working on spilled over the edge and clattered to the floor in a bundle as the whole table collapsed. Twoearle stood there with her back turned, visibly trembling, though Aika suspected it wasn't from fear at all. They were both quiet until Aika asked, "Why are you trying to provoke me?"

There was a long pause, before Twoearle turned to leave without a word. Aika caught her arm by the sleeve before she could make it out the door. "What?" Twoearle demanded. "What more do you want?"

Aika bit her lip, before answering. "Do you remember the day we first met? How I was so on edge?"

Twoearle rolled her eyes, and looked away angrily. "What about it?"

"I can sense people's presence, Grandpa taught me how." Aika continued. "So I should have known you were there before I saw you, but your Imagine Flak kept you hidden. It meant you could have been following us all day and I never would have realised it." She paused, before asking. "How long did you wait for me and Souji to seperate?"

"..." Twoerle rubbed at her eyes, tiredly. "I don't even remember."

"You didn't want to approach him while he was at home because I was just across the gap if he screamed, and you didn't want to do it while I was there at school with him, either, so you waited to get him alone." Aika nodded. "But we never gave you the chance, and the Elemerians attacked and forced your hand, so you just had to go for it."

"What about it?"

"Was the reason you waited just because you wanted to seduce him?"

There was a pause, and Twoearle bit her lip, before she nodded. "I knew he had a strong twintail elemera, so my only chance to be with him was to throw myself at him when he was alone."

"So it was really love at first sight for you."

Tears welled in Twoearle's eyes, and she quickly rubbed them away with her sleeve. "You've always been good at figuring things out."

Aika could imagine it pretty easily. If her home had been destroyed, if the only way to deal with her own grief was for her to rip out most of her own feelings of love, and the first person who she met was someone she knew could help her was a guy when she had been expecting a young girl… Instead of ruining some child's life, Twoearle could place her burdens on the strong back and shoulders of someone passionate and driven like Souji… Of course she would pin all her hopes on him. Of course she would fall in love with him.

But then there was a problem. Another girl who spent all her time with him. A girl he was close to, who was always by his side and shared his interests. Worse still, the girl was a childhood friend who he's so comfortable with that they spend time in each other's bedrooms without any hesitation. Even worse, that girl had those twintails that Twoearle could never have again, something that Souji prized more than anything else.

If she were in the same situation, Aika would have resented the hell out of herself, too.

"I'm sorry." She murmured. "I really am."

"Yeah, well…" Twoearle trailed off at a loss for words. "What can you do?" After a moment, she fell back into her chair, staring blankly at the floor even tears streamed down her face. "What can you do?"

They sat in silence for a long time.

Aika bit her lip and said after a minute. "...My father never really had time for me."

"What?" Twoearle murmured in confusion. "I thought this was about my sad backstory?"

"He worked long hours and he was tired whenever he got home and went straight to sleep, so we barely spoke." Aika breathed out. "That's why I got into karate. It wasn't just because I was good at it, or because I liked hurting people." She paused before admitting. "Though I kinda did. Mostly it gave me more time with my Grandpa, who was a lot more of a father figure to me."

Twoearle nodded slowly, before giving a small, sarcastic grin. "I bet it was mostly the hurting people."

It was a little bit. "I guess what I'm trying to say, is… Souji isn't the only person who can make you happy… and I want you to be happy." Aika looked away with embarrassment. "But I know you're not. You're in grief not just for losing Souji, but because of what happened to your world, and because of your failure... and even what happened with Aisana." She turned to face Twoearle directly. "...So please be my friend."

A sob escaped Twoearle's throat, and she looked to the floor. She tried to say something, but no sound came out. Without saying anything else, Aika reached out and took Twoearle's hand in her own, before leaning down and pulling her into a gentle hug.

Twoearle threw both her arms around Aika torso and squeezed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"I fucked everything up so bad." She squeezed out between wails. "I ruined it all."

Aika didn't answer, just listening.

"I thought I was a genius." Twoearle continued, shaking now and sniffling. "I thought I had these powers, that I was like a god. It was okay if I touched the children, because I was going to save them. It was okay if I did things to Aisana, because I was special." Her legs gave out, and she nearly fell from her chair she was leaning so far out of it.

Aika grimaced in pain as weight was put on her ribs, but made no noise as she eased Twoearle down to the floor.

"They're all dead, now. Or zombies." Twoearle continued to babble. "The children, my parents, everyone. There's nothing left. I didn't save anything!"

"You saved me. You saved Souji, and Erina." Aika murmured and patted her back. "You saved my whole world."

"..." Twoearle opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

"Thank you, Twoearle."

At those words, Twoearle lost any composure or coherence. Her face screwed up, and powerful sobs wracked her body as she wailed and gripped at Aika. They stayed like that well past losing track of time, until Twoearle's energy was spent and her face was swollen and red.

* * *

Since the argument, Sora had found herself stuck on the other side of the portal not sure what to do with herself. Twoearle always had a connection to the internet in her secret bases, so with nothing better to do Sora took the chair at the main console and found her way to a website called 'Mytube'. She sat there with her feet up, watching some cooking channel where the chef tried to recreate famous foods from movies, games, and tv shows. She'd seen a similar concept for a channel back on Earth, but this one was drawing from completely unrecognisable media to Sora, which was a little fascinating. The other interesting part was some of the strange local Catyu ingredients, like, 'A quarter cup of whisker stalk juice,' or 'A fine slice of Piranha-Koala thigh meat' left Sora wanting to try some for herself.

This was all obviously a distraction from what was really occupying her thoughts. The more complicated issue of how the other Warriors felt about Souji needed a resolution, but Sora had no idea what to do about it. The worst thing she could imagine happening would be the breakup of the team, but even just losing Twoearle would make it impossible for them to continue. Without her, there would be no one to repair or maintain the suits, which would mean it was only a matter of time until there was no one left to defend the Earth.

Which seemed like such a horrifically insensitive thing to consider, but there it was. The very simple reason why Souji had chosen to ignore the girl's feeling. They weren't an idol group who could just break up. They were trying to save the world, and there wasn't room for backstage drama. If they failed then nothing would ever be the same.

Souji felt guilty about it for the entire time, but it was the best he could do. If he picked one of the three, what would become of the other two? Would they leave, or do something even worse? Looking back on it, Sora thought Souji should have just trusted the girls and told the truth: They didn't have time for teenage romance, not when the stakes were so high. If he told them that, maybe they would have been able to shelve all this for a better time, but now the Elemerians were gone from two worlds and these issues were coming to a head.

She sighed, clicking next video as the current one ended.

"I don't know. I just don't know." She muttered to herself. A sudden whoosh sound rang out behind her, and she was so surprised by the sudden disturbance she nearly feel out of her chair. When she stood up and looked backwards, she found Isabella standing there. "Oh, it's just you." Sora breathed a sigh of relief, before she noticed the streams of tears pouring down Isabella's face. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Isabella's expression changed to one of anger, and she rubbed at her eyes while turning away. "What do you care? Just go home."

"Uh…" Sora hesitated. "I mean, we're friends, right? I can't just leave you like this."

"Why not?" Isabella snapped, her pitch hitching upwards. "It's how you left Twoearle, so just-" She was interrupted by a sob as her knees wobbled. "Just… go away."

Unsure what to do, Sora hesitated, watching her.

"Are you stupid?!" Isabella yelled, casting about for something to throw, before stumbling as she unbalanced herself in the process.

Sora saw that she was about to fall, and rushed over to catch her. "Okay, okay, easy."

"Sh-shut up!" Isabella struggled in her grip. "Let go! Let go of me!"

"If I do you'll fall over!" Sora grunted, back, before glancing over at the chair she'd been sitting in earlier. "Look, just sit down."

It took Sora a moment to get Isabella across the room, the two of them wrestling each other the entire way.

"I hate you!" Isabella snarled, her fingernails digging into Sora's back. "You're the worst you stupid-"

"Sure, okay, but just-"

They tripped together, knocking the chair over and sending them both sprawling to the floor. It took a moment for Sora to realise where she was as she opened her eyes. She was laying flat on her belly, but not on the floor. Beneath Sora, Isabella's face was turning as pink as her hair with Sora's breasts mashed up against it. They both simply looked at eachother. For a moment, Sora was too stunned to move, before she quickly shot up to her feet, and Isabella sat up, looking away and refusing to make eye contact.

"I-I'm sorry." Sora quickly apologised, rubbing the back of her head.

Not saying a word, Isabella stood up and turned away.

"U-usually I'm on the receiving end of accidents like that." Sora chuckled awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" Isabella demanded, glaring.

"I mean, uh, usually girls fall onto me like that." She tried to smile, but Isabella only scowled at her. "Um. Anyway… I mean, you look like you're feeling better?"

Isabella just looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean… isn't it better to feel a little embarrassed than being heartbroken?" Sora continued.

Isabella blinked, her anger diffusing after a moment as she huffed out with disbelief.

"So, um, what was that all about?"

She stared back, before sighing and looking away. "I confessed my feelings to senpai."

_Wait, did she mean Aika?_ Sora blinked, a small worm of nervousness wriggling into her belly, though she wasn't sure where it came from. "And… she said no?"

Isabella rolled her eyes. "What, do you think I got the answer I wanted?"

"R-right, I guess not." Sora shifted nervously. "Well, I'm sorry about that."

"Why should you be?" Isabella challenged.

Sora paused before smiling and reaching out to touch Isabella's shoulder. "Because I don't like seeing my friends hurt."

"Wh-who said we were friends?" Isabella demanded, pulling away and crossing her arms, blushing furiously.

"Oh." Sora felt a little upset. "You don't feel that way about me?"

"I- I didn't say that!"

"Well, I just thought after the sleepover, and fighting off Elemerians together we were, you know, more than acquaintances." Sora sighed disappointedly.

"I didn't say we weren't friends!" Isabella interrupted. "Just… you know… we were rivals until… today."

"Ohhhh." Sora covered her mouth with her hands as the pieces came together in her mind. "Because, you like Aika, and-"

Isabella interrupted impatiently. "Yeah, and Aika likes you, or… she likes Souji, anyway."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise." Isabella scowled. "Not to me, anyway."

"Right, sorry."

Isabella just glared.

"...Anyway, cheer up?" Sora tried to smile. "I'm sure there's a girl out there somewhere for you."

"..." Isabella suddenly looked uncomfortable, turning away. "Look, I need to sleep. Can you go back to your own world now?"

"Ah, yeah, okay." Sora headed for the portal room. "I'll, uh, check up on you later okay?"

"...Yeah, Bye." Isabella answered, jamming her thumb into the door control and it wooshed shut behind Sora.


	33. 33 The Band Breaks Up!

A video was posted anonymously to a Nyaponese message board, just before midnight on a warm summer's evening. It didn't get much attention at first, but enough people were intrigued by it that they shared it over social media, and in relatively short order it soon became one of the biggest videos on the website MyTube. It was a simple video without any flashy special effects or screen cuts. It was shot in one take with what seemed to be a mobile phone camera and showed nothing but a young girl's face. The reason the video went viral was because of whose face that was.

"Hey there." A pretty young Catian girl with incredible twin pink drill tails addressed the camera directly. "Tailpink here, the real one not a fake, cause I know there are some of those." She smiled, at the camera. "And to prove it's the real one, I'm just gonna take a quick flight across Time Square in Mew York. Check it."

The camera moved suddenly, and it showed a city street full of onlookers surprised faces far below, as Tailpink mysteriously hovered through the air over the street. There seemingly wasn't even any draft from air displacement, despite the pink coloured energy being admitted from the afterburner like adornments in her hair. "Someone shoulda filmed that, and it should make its way to MyTube soon I guess."

The camera turned back to Tailpink's face. "Anyway, that's Elemera, that's how I can fly now. I had to borrow it from Blue senpai, but uh, Elemera is like love, I guess. And that's why the aliens came to Catyu. To steal our love, and not just of like, family, or country, or, you know, important things, but our love of cool stuff too like funny hair styles or girls in heels and all kinds of stuff. Like this flight module is powered by some dude's love of ribbons."

She paused and chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief. "For real, I'm not lying. _Ribbons. _Go ahead and figure that one out _scientists_." Somehow the word sounded contemptuous coming from her lips. "Anyway, I guess I just wanted to take the time to uh, make my big announcement: I'm leaving Catyu!

"No joke, no sarcasm at all. We've beaten all the aliens down here on this planet, and we're gonna go to space to find and save the other worlds they're invading. Me and my senpai's from another world are going to board a big spaceship and use it to travel the stars, protecting worlds like Catyu from the Elemerians."

"Uh…" She paused for a moment, and swallowed. "So I guess this is a goodbye. A lot of people have supported me here on Catyu, um, a lot more than I realised. And I just want to say to my fans, thank you for everything." There was a wobbly note to her voice. "No matter where I go, I'll always be a Catyu girl, you know? I hope to come back one day. I just want everyone to know that I'll miss you all." She bit her lip before nodding. "Yeah I think that does it. Goodbye." She turned the phone around and pushed the button, ending the video.

It wasn't long at all until this video became the most watched in the history of Mytube.

* * *

The door to the Shindo Matriarch's office slid open with a slow creak, and Erina was ushered inside by one of the family's many maids. Her mother was seated behind her desk, eyes glued to a document laid out on the desk in front of her, looking like she hadn't even noticed her daughter come in. Gingerly, afraid of making noise, Erina crossed the room and took the chair in front of her mother's desk. Her mother tapped her pen on the desk a few times in contemplation, before breathing out and setting the document aside to look up at her daughter with a smile.

"Sorry about that, sweetie, I'm just very busy. Was it something important?"

"Yes, Mother." Erina was quick to answer, and she maintained eye contact as best she could but still felt the urge to fidget in her chair. "I wouldn't have bothered you otherwise."

"Well, what is it then?" Emu dropped her pen and focused her full attention on her daughter.

Now that she was finally here Erina wasn't even sure where to start. She swallowed nervously, before opening her mouth. "Mother, I haven't been honest."

"...I'm disappointed to hear that." She steepled her fingers together and leaned backwards in her chair. "How is it that you've deceived me?"

"The twintail club." Erina began, and suddenly it all came spilling out in a rush of words. "It's not just a club about twintails, but it's members are the _real_ twintail warriors and I'm Tailyellow, and someone needs to fight the Elemerians and they asked me to help them, and they're my friends, but then a nuke blew up in Tailblue's face and even though she's fine now everything's a lot more serious than I thought it would be and now the others are planning to build a spaceship so they can invade other worlds and I have things here on Earth to worry about, like the family and you."

Emu Shindo blinked slowly, separating her hands and leaning back in her chair. She opened her mouth and carefully said in a questioning tone, "You are Tailyellow?"

Erina nodded, eyes fixed on the floor.

"...And you haven't made any progress with that Souji boy, then?"

She shook her head, biting her lip.

"I see, and you can't just quit because the whole world is at stake, as well."

"Yes." It seemed like her mother really did understand. "And not just our world, but other ones too."

"Hmmm." Emu breathed and thought for a moment. "I understand. Thank you for bringing this to me."

"Thank you, Mother."

"Really, there's no need to keep secrets from me." Emu smiled at her daughter. "I was young too, you know. Sure, I wasn't fighting aliens with my friends, but we were definitely doing wild things as well."

"Mother…" Erina felt her eyes moistening, and an enormous load lifted from her shoulders. "So you understand?"

"Yes, yes I do." Emu reassured her. "You want to quit your friend's club, but you don't know how to tell them."

"..." Erina stomach plummeted to her shoes. "I-I-I can't quit. Only someone with a strong love of twintails can use one of the suits."

"That does make things tricky." Emu agreed, and stood up. "But don't worry, Mother will take care of it."

"That's, er…" Erina swallowed nervously. "Mother I-"

"I understand it will be hard to explain things to your friends, so I can deal with that too if you're too nervous."

"B-b-but I-"

"It's okay, Erina." In a rare display of affection, the Shindo matriarch reached out and put her hand on her daughter's cheek. "Don't worry, mother will take care of it."

Somehow Erina felt more worried than ever, but she was too scared to say so.

* * *

"Look, I'm just saying that creating a self replicating hoard of robots is literally the premise of a dozen different dystopian science fiction franchises." Isabella pointed out. "Are you absolutely sure that we don't need to build some kind of safety into them?"

Twoearle rolled her eyes. "Look, this isn't some movie, alright? They're _just_ robots. All they do is exactly what we tell them to. As long as we don't tell them to self replicate endlessly until the whole world is consumed, they won't do that."

"Yeah, but what if they misinterpret the order you give them? Like, you tell them to turn the ring into a spaceship, but they just keep making more and more spaceships and they start looking to use Earth as material for the construction?"

"Oh well in that case, I'll just make sure to program that they make _one_ spaceship." Twoearle heaved out a sigh of exasperation. "You're really overthinking this."

"Oh, yeah?" Isabella crossed her arms. "Because I still remember that time you almost wiped out all life in _two_ universes."

"It was fine! I made a backup, remember?"

"Exactly!" Isabella threw up her hands. "You had a backup plan! Is it really so crazy that we come up with one here?"

"Urgh, fine!" Twoearle snapped. "You know what I'll do? I'll make it so they can feel fear! How about that? I'll make them able to feel fear and pain so we can draw and quarter a few to put the fear into the rest of them? Is that what you want?!" She demanded. "Does that sound good to you?!"

Isabella sighed, and looked back down at the metal limb she was assembling. "Alright, alright."

The two of them continued to work in silence for a moment. The room was filled with the sound of turned screws and fingers tapping on a keyboard, as Isabella leafed through the instruction booklet they'd printed for her, and Twoearle continued to design the ship the robots would eventually build.

"Why are we the only ones working on this, anyway?" Isabella grumbled. "This sucks, it's so boring."

"Aika's parents are hounding her about school, so she's going to keep going until it's time for us to leave." Twoearle answered over her shoulder without looking back.

"What about Sora?"

"_Souji_, is keeping Aika company I guess, and before you ask, Erina's got some family problems of her own, so I think we won't see too much of her in the secret base for a while."

"Yeah, she mentioned that." Isabella thought back to their sleepover, squinting as she connected some wires together. "I mean, I always wanted my family to pay more attention to me, but she's kinda like on the opposite end of that spectrum, with her family being too focused on everything she does. It's weird, you know? I'm not sure who has it worse."

Twoearle just grunted in response, not really paying attention to the chatter.

"..."

"..."

"...Do you want to have a sleepover?" Isabella suddenly asked.

"...Sure."

* * *

The entire class watched in stunned silence as Aika easily outpaced all the other girls in the year. Not only that, but she set a time on the one kilometre run that not only put the second years boys who were watching to shame, but was a full minute faster than the previous school record. The PE teacher who was holding the stop watch gaped in disbelief at the face of the device.

Aika herself came to a gentle stop, her breathing only slightly changed. Without saying anything she jogged over to the tap and got herself a drink. Sighing in frustration, Souji approached and bent down to whisper in her ear.

"I thought you said you were going to take it easy for your rib?"

Aika blinked. "And that's what I did. Did that look like I was trying to you?"

"The other girls haven't even finished yet!" Souji shook his head in disbelief. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the excited looking PE teacher rushing towards them. "Heads up, I think he's gonna try and send you to the Olympics or something."

"Tsube! That was incredible." He jogged over. "I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

Aika spent most of the rest of that lesson trying to play down her results, acting like she didn't believe what the coach was trying to tell them, while Souji did quite well in his own right relative to the other boys.

The rest of the school went quietly, as Souji was careful to not let Aika do any heavy lifting lest she out herself again. He didn't even trust her not to break the door handles, so he was constantly walking ahead of her like some kind of gentlemen to open doors and carry her things. It got to the point where Aika was blushing with embarrassment about the treatment, though she did enjoy it. A lot of the girls were gossiping about it in class, and came over at lunch to ask Aika if they'd started dating when Souji left for the bathroom.

"Uh, no." She admitted with annoyance. "I just, uh, broke a rib on the holiday so he's helping me out."

"Oh, that's a shame, but it's also kind of sweet." One of them commented while they broke out into fresh murmurs.

"How did you break a rib?" Another one asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Aika reassured them. "I just had a run in with an Elemerian before Tailred could show up."

"Oh, no." One of the girls gasped. "I didn't see any new attack on the news."

"Well, that's because they're totally normal now." A different girl replied. "But are you sure you're okay?"

Aika couldn't help but smirk. "You should see the alien."

The girls left when Souji came back, and there was only afternoon classes for the day before they went to the twintail club together to meet up with Erina. The room was empty when they arrived, Erina probably being busy with student council work.

"I think I'm gonna miss school." Souji admitted as they closed the door shut behind them. "I know it sounds cliche, but it's supposed to be our golden years, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that feeling." Aika agreed as she took her seat. "It's not just your friends, but also stuff like school fair, or the bonfire night."

"Or the inevitable excursion to Kyoto."

"I might even miss some of the teachers-"

There was a knock on the door that interrupted Aika.

Souji and Aika glanced at each other, both wondering who it could be. The club members could come and go as they pleased, so there was no need for Erina to knock.

"Come in!" Souji called out.

"Pardon me." A woman's voice replied, and the door slid open. The girl that stepped through was wearing a school uniform, and they both recognised her as someone from another classroom. "Is this the twintail club?"

She was quite striking, with elegant aristocratic features and a serene expression. She glided across the floor smoothly, her head staying perfectly level as she walked. Most striking of all were the two long twintails stretching down just below her shoulders.

"Ah, yeah it is." Souji smiled at the radiant sight of the twintails. "Did you want to join?"

"Yes I did." The girl answered, and bowed. "Did you have an application form?"

"Uh… I can print one off." Souji answered. "I'm sorry, we just weren't expecting any new members."

"I understand." The girl replied, her voice at the same level as when she entered the room. "I'm also here to give you this." She reached into her bag, and took out another neatly folded form, which she handed to Souji.

He unfolded the document, and his eyebrows came together with confusion. "This… is a notice for quitting the club? But you haven't even joined yet."

"Yes, it's not for me." She bowed again. "Please accept Miss Shindo's retirement. I'm here on behalf of the family, as we understand you are doing important work here and wish to support that."

"I don't understand, what's going on?" Souji asked, confused.

"...You work for the Shindo family?" Aika asked, though she already knew the answer.

"That's right. My name is Sato Sakurako. I'm honoured to make your acquaintance."

"I-I still don't understand." Souji looked to Aika.

"She's here to replace Erina." Aika narrowed her eyes.

"What?" He sounded disbelieving. "How?"

"With this." Sato reached into her bag and took out a metallic, yellow wristband. It took a moment for Souji to recognise it as Erina's tailsuit. "I looked forward to fighting alongside you."


	34. 34 Betrayal

The yellow metal band sat in the palm of Sato's hand, and Souji stared at it in disbelief.

"I'm calling Erina." Aika took out her mobile phone and dialed, only to look up when she heard a ringing noise from within the room.

With casual indifference, Sato reached into her pocket and took out a familiar looking mobile phone. "Hello, this Sato Sakurako speaking. May I take a message?"

"Why do you have Erina's phone?" Aika demanded.

"To ease my transition into the team, Miss Erina saw fit to grant me use of her mobile phone to make it easier for you to reach me and for me to take advantage of her contacts."

"This can't be right." Souji looked towards Aika. "Erina wouldn't just quit like that."

"It is the decision the Mistress has made, please respect it." Sato lowered her head in an apologetic bow.

"I'm going to go talk to her." Souji walked past Sato, and out of the room. When she went to follow him he pointed a finger at her. "No, you stay here. I want to hear this from her."

"As you wish." Sato bowed her head, before gliding away to wait in the corner of the room.

Souji and Aika rushed out of the room and across the school to the student council building, the chants of the schools sporting clubs echoing through the halls, along with the patter of droplets on the rooftop. The smell of rain was thick in the air as previously dry grass was wetted by a sudden summer shower. The student council office was located near the centre of the school, at the top of the three sets of stairs that the pair took two at a time in their hurry. Aika arrived first, pausing to give him a chance to catch up before knocking on the door.

"Come in." They stepped in to find the council's student secretary looking up at them from behind a pair of glasses. "Can I help you?"

Souji and Aika exchanged glances, before he spoke. "Uh, President Erina just sent someone to hand in her club resignation, and we just wanted to talk to her."

"Oh." The girl's eyebrows came together with surprise. "Really? She loved the Twintail Club."

"Yeah, we're confused too." Souji looked past her to the empty council's chair. "Is she in?"

"Sorry, she just left with one of her maids. I thought she was headed to your club, honestly."

Aika clicked her tongue in frustration before hurrying away, and Souji lingered just long enough to say, "Thanks." Before turning to run to the door.

They got to the front gates just in time to see Erina step into her family car, while Mikoto closed the door for her, holding up an umbrella to keep her charge dry.

"Erina!" Souji yelled, trying to see her through the tinted windows and walking forwards into the downpour. "Erina, what's going on?"

Mikota moved to put herself between him and the window. "Master Souji, please step away from the car."

"Why?" He demanded. "What's wrong? Why's Erina quitting the team?"

"Master Souji, please understand." Mikoto spoke in sympathetic tones. "Erina is the next head of the family, she has responsibilities here on Earth, and the family wants to keep her safe."

"But what about the Warriors?" Souji demanded, wiping water from his eyes as the rain plastered his normally unruly hair to his forehead, and droplets ran down his nose. "There are worlds out there other than Earth that need us!"

"The family understands and agrees, which is why Mistress Shindo provided a suitable replacement. Sato is a maid of the house, so she is trained in various martial arts, she has a strong love of twintails, and you'll find her willing to carry out any order that you give without hesitation."

"But we don't know her-" Souji began.

"And if you find her to be unsuitable the family will be more than happy to replace her with another more qualified maid."

"Why can't Erina explain this herself, why are you trying to keep her away from us?!" Souji demanded, and went to step past her, but she moved to block him. "Mikoto, let me talk to Erina."

"The family doesn't want to make this any more stressful for your team or for Erina than this already is."

"I'm feeling pretty stressed out already!" Souji growled. "Mikoto, we're friends, aren't we? What's really going on here?"

"It's exactly as I've described."

"Then why can't Erina explain this herself?" He moved to step past her, but Mikoto reached out to put her hand on his shoulder.

Mikoto's voice took on a warning tone. "Do not approach the-"

"Take your hand off him." Aika growled suddenly up close, with her fingers digging into Mikoto's wrist, as the maid winced with pain.

The window to the car rolled down, and Erina cried out, "Stop! Please, don't hurt each other!"

There was a pause, before Aika shot one last glare of warning at Mikoto, before letting her go, and the maid shook out head hand as feeling returned to her fingers.

"Erina, what's going on?" Souji asked, turning to face her.

"...I can't go to space, Souji." Erina answered, looking away. "I… I have to inherit the clan, and I can't do that if I'm not here."

"But what about the Elemerians?"

"...Sato will be a better warrior than I ever was, she shouldn't have problems with controlling herself the way I did." Erina didn't look back at him. "And I can't just leave my mother, Souji."

"Erina-"

"G-goodbye." She cut him off, her lower lip trembling as she took out a handkerchief to dab at her eyes. "Please come to say goodbye to me before you go, I'll miss you all terribly."

The window rolled up, with an electric hum, and Erina's face disappeared back behind the tinted glass.

"N-no, wait, Erina!" Souji yelled, and Mikoto stepped between him and the car. "This can't be it! Erina, you're one of us, aren't you?"

"Souji, that's enough." Mikoto answered, sadly, before looking to Aika. "Take this." She held out the umbrella. "Please, don't catch a cold at a time like this."

Aika reluctantly accepted it, and Mikoto walked around the car to the passenger seat.

"We're friends, aren't we?!" Souji called out. "Erina?!"

Aika put a hand on his shoulder, looking on sadly as the car drove away.

* * *

The cafe was dead silent. It was after hours so the closed sign was visible in the window. All four of the warriors were sat around a table, processing the news after Aika and Souji told the story.

"So what do we do now?" Isabella asked, looking to her elders for an answer. "Do we… do we rescue her?"

"What? Just kick down the front door of her family's mansion and demand they hand her over?" Twoearle shook her head. "I mean, look, I've done all kinds of stuff to small girls but I've never kidnapped a minor before."

The other three winced at that, Aika frowning at Twoearle. "You really shouldn't be joking about that."

All Twoearle could do was give a guilty shrug.

"We can't just give up!" Souji began passionately. "Obviously, her mother is controlling her, somehow. I'm not saying we kidnap her, but we definitely need a chance to talk to her out of this, right?" He looked around the table.

"Yeah!" Isabella yelled her agreement, and Twoearle nodded, though Aika remained silent.

She sat there with her arms crossed, biting her lower lip as she looked at the table.

"Aika?" He asked, worry entering his voice.

She breathed out, before meeting his gaze. "What if she wants to stay?"

He looked confused. "What?"

"What if Erina wants to stay with her family?" Aika demanded, looking around the table at the others. "She's not like us, she's got a lot more holding her here than the rest of us. Is it really so hard to believe that she can't abandon that?"

"Are you saying we can't even ask?" There was a note of anger in Souji's voice.

"That's not what I'm saying..." Aika's voice softened. "I'm saying, you need to be prepared to accept whatever she wants to do."

He swallowed, and looked down at the table.

"If worst comes to worst we're just going to have to make do with Sato, or maybe we can find someone else with a strong enough affinity for twintails." Aika continued. "I mean… I hate to say it, but it could be useful to have a warrior who won't go berserk on hand." Immediately she knew she'd misspoken, as his eyes narrowed on her angrily.

"Are you just trying to-" He stopped himself, swallowing back what he was about to say.

Aika stared at him, jaw clenched. "Am I trying to what, Souji?"

"Nothing." He breathed out, swallowing and looking away regretfully. "I shouldn't have even thought of it, I'm sorry."

Silence fell over the room again, before Aika stood up, her chair scraping loudly on the floor. "You know you can be really cruel sometimes, Souji." She growled as she walked out of the cafe's front door. Everyone braced for the loud bang as she looked like she was about to slam it shut, but she thought better of it and closed it gently, before walking away up the footpath and disappearing from view.

A moment later Souji groaned, banging his head against the desk. "I shouldn't have even begun to say that."

"...I don't follow." Isabella glanced over at Twoearle. "What didn't he say?"

The scientist sighed sadly, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms. "He was about to ask if Aika was just trying to eliminate a romantic rival."

"Oh…" A look of comprehension came over Isabella's face. "Oh. Wow." She looked at him with something like contempt. "Dude. Dick move."

"I know." He raised his head slightly, before dropping it to bang against the table.

"I mean, that also means you know about her feelings and you're ignoring her deliberately, too." Isabella continued. "Which is just super weak, too."

"I know."

"And she knows you well enough to decipher that instantly, so really you may as well have just called her a bitch to her face."

Twoearle took pity on him, leaning forward in her chair as she changed the topic by asking. "Where's the Yellow Suit?"

"Sato has it."

"And where's she?" Twoearle asked.

"We left her at the clubroom."

Twoearle took her phone from her pocket and opened up the footage from the clubroom's camera. On the screen, a brown haired twintailed girl wearing the school uniform was standing in attendance in the corner of the room, looking unbothered by the fact it was well past nine in the evening and the sun had long since set. It took Souji a moment to realise she was standing in the exact place he'd last seen her.

"...Uh." Isabella breathed. "Like, how long has she been there like that?"

Twoearle glanced at Souji, before putting her phone away. "I'm bringing her in."

"What, why?" He demanded.

"Because if Erina doesn't decide to come back, we'll need a replacement." Twoearle answered, walking towards the catapult. "And even if Erina does come back we could always use more warriors anyway." She disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving Souji alone with Isabella.

"I can't believe this." Souji groaned, resting his head on the table again.

"I mean it's not that strange." Isabella replied. "Most people don't want to spend their lives fighting monsters everyday."

Souji looked up at her with annoyance, but didn't say anything.

"I'm just saying." Isabella looked away. They were both silent for a few seconds. "So, um… how often do you turn into Sora?"

"Why?" Souji asked suspiciously, his eyebrows coming together.

"N-no reason." Isabella replied back, cheeks turning pink. "Does it matter? I'm just curious."

The room was silent again, and stayed that way until Twoearle returned with Sato.

* * *

Thinking it made Twoearle feel guilty, but as she looked at the results of Sato's work, she couldn't help but think the maid represented a bit of an upgrade compared to Erina. For one thing, she didn't have a conflicting schedule, so Sato was free to carry out Warrior business at all hours of the day, which sort of made her better than even Souij or Aika. For another, Sato helped with whatever she was asked without question, and the secret base had never looked cleaner. Not to mention watching a gothic lolita maid go about her business with an actual feather duster was something Twoearle had long fantasized about. Plus that skirt was absolutely indecent.

Cleaning up wasn't the only thing they'd had her do. Aika had made a brief appearance to assess Sato's combat skills, and though the ensuing spar was completely one sided against the maid, it had revealed that she was trained in Krav Maga and would certainly be able to fight alongside the other tailsuit warriors when transformed.

As far as transformations went, she was doing just fine there as well. At Souji's insistence they hadn't given Sato use of the yellow suit, but she'd proven herself to have a suitable affinity for twintails with the white suit they'd collected from North Korea. Better yet, her affinity for twintails was stronger than Erina's was, and she even had no issues with self control either. Tailwhite was perfectly able to follow orders and very smoothly learned to battle while transformed.

All this just put Souji in an even worse mood. Twoearle knew him well enough to know that he was very loyal, that no matter how well Sato did she would never be a suitable replacement to Erina in his eyes. His discomfort with her was obvious for all to see, especially when she followed him and Aika to school. And even despite that, as far as Twoearle was concerned, Sato was still less creepy than Erina.

There was a beep to her left, as a notification interrupted her musings. When she glanced at it, it said that Aika had entered the elevator and was on her way down, giving Twoearle plenty of time to close a few tabs and clear her internet history. After retrieving it from under her lab, Twoearle came into the monitor room just as Aika was stepping off the elevator.

"Is it done?" Aika demanded excitedly.

"Oh, yeah, it's done." Twoearle smirked and heaved the case up onto the table where it landed with a nice dramatic thunk. "The blue tailsuit is inside this baby."

"Great." Aika grinned leaning forward excitedly. "Come on, open it."

"Not yet!" Twoearle laughed. "Before that I want you to promise me something."

"Huh. Deja Vu." Aika narrowed her eyes. "I feel like we've done this before and it didn't go well for you."

"Ah, but I remembered that too." Twoearle spun the case around so the hinges were facing her, and the lock was facing Aika. "Behold! The strongest high security case ever devised on your planet! This thing's tougher than a bank vault. Even with your freakish and inhuman strength there's no way you'll be able to break inside." Twoearle sneered triumphantly. "With this you'll have no choice but to do what I want in order to receive your precious blue tailsuit! At last! I hold the power you barbar- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She shrieked and covered her face, as Aika raised her fist. "Don't hit me, please!"

There was a deafening bang, and Twoearle felt her hair wave from displaced air. When she opened her eyes she saw the case itself was still intact, but the metal table it had been on was warped out of shape, with a new perfectly case shaped indentation in it.

"Huh." Aika looked impressed.

"S-see?" Twoearle put a hand to her chest to still her beating heart. "Even you couldn't possibly break inside."

"I feel like that's a challenge." Aika reached down and grabbed the case, lifting it up and turning it around in her hands. "What's it made of?"

"Bullshit scifi super metal." Twoearle answered. "Just think like Adamantium, or whatever else you like."

"So what do you want?" Aika looked up, her fingers still probing at the joints.

"I want you to agree to one unspecified favor in the future!"

Looking unimpressed, Aika reached out and put her hand on the scientists lab coat. "Try again, what do you actually want?"

Gulping nervously, Twoearle tried to pry the fingers, but soon gave up. "L-look, we're friends, right? Surely a favor isn't too much to ask for?"

"You're right. It isn't." Aika agreed, letting go and placed the case on the table with the joints facing her. "We are friends, and I'm more than happy to help you." She clenched her fist again, pulling back for a punch while her other hand held the case steady.

"Aika, you'll just break your knuc-"

There was a crack like the sound of a whip, and Twoearle winced as her ears started ringing. The edges of the case were warped out of shape, and Aika was shaking her hand with a wince. "That did hurt." With the sides of it bent just a little, there was enough room for Aika to get her fingers inside and pull.

There was a hiss of gasses escaping the case, and Twoearle watched in disbelief as, muscles straining and teeth grit, Aika pried it open bit by bit. It wasn't easy, by the time she was done she'd managed to cut her hands a few times on jagged metal, and she was sweating with exertion, but the case lay open and Aika triumphantly slid the tailsuit over her wrist.

"...You've kept up with your gravity training, haven't you?" Twoearle concluded after a moment.

"Yeah. I've been able to squeeze in a few hours everyday, even with school."

Twoearle pulled a face as she stared at the worthless wreckage of the device. "Well there goes a few hours of work down the drain. I even had fog machine inside so there'd be a dramatic cloud when I opened it."

"So, what was the favour?" Aika asked.

Twoearle sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Okay. I might as well just ask, huh?" She swallowed nervously. "Um… It's about Aisana." She glanced at Aika, and saw that she was taking this seriously. "I-I mean, the Elemerians do horrible stuff, and she's helping them. And that's unforgivable, I know, but-"

"You want to help her."

Twoearle nodded, mouth dry. "It's just… she's so messed up, following me to Earth, and I'm pretty sure I'm the one who messed her up, so please… Can we help her?"

There was a pause, before Aika nodded slowly. "I understand."

"Thanks." Twoearle looked away. "That's all, and I guess that was kind of overdramatic, but-" Doing it that way and making it into a silly joke was the only way she could bring herself to broach the topic. "Anyway." She swallowed again. "Than-"

She was interrupted when Aika pulled her into a hug, that lingered for a few seconds, before they separated. "We'll save her." Aika promised, looking straight into her friends eyes. "I'll talk to Souji about it, and we'll come up with a plan.

Unable to say anything for a moment, Twoearle turned away and rubbed at her eye. "Alright, that's it. I'm gonna go, uh… go, uh… do something."

"Yeah, take a moment."

Without looking back, Twoearle hurried away to her lab, a warm feeling growing in her chest.


	35. 35 Blackmail

"Is it ready?" As per usual, Isabella was trying to act more mature than she really was. Twoearle couldn't help but smirk at the obvious excitement the younger girl was trying to hide. She did a pretty good job keeping a neutral expression on her face, but the way her tail was writhing in the air behind her betrayed her interest. That, and this was the third time she'd asked.

"I remember my first robot, too." Twoearle began. "I was as excited as you are now."

"Shut up." Isabella scowled. "It's not like that."

"Oh? My mistake." Twoearle chuckled. "Your first was a lot better than ol' Pervocopter."

"Ew. Don't get nostalgic about something awful like that."

"It was basically just a drone I modified in the basement to give it a slightly higher definition camera." Twoearle sighed. "It worked great until the magpie got it."

Isabella paused. "I was expecting a dirtier end to that story."

Twoearle shrugged. "Well, it was filming a class of school girls in swimsuits at the time."

"There it is." Isabella sighed. "I shouldn't ask, but was it high school girls, or middle school girls?"

Isabella just gave her a pitying look for her naivety.

"Right, duh." Isabella grimaced. "Of course. Elementary."

The two of them were alone in the secret base, seated next to the robot they built together, with a series of cables running from ports in the back of its head to the bank of monitors behind it.

"How many damn drivers are we installing into this thing, anyway?" Isabella asked.

"Half a trillion or so."

"No wonder it's taking so long."

"If anything you should be impressed that it's taking so little."

Isabella paused in thought for a moment. "Is there anyone else on Earth or Catyu who could build something like this?"

"I very much doubt it." Twoearle glanced over to her. "Feels cool, right?"

"...A little." Isabella admitted.

Suddenly behind the two was the sound of three tones, followed by mechanical whirring as a hard drive spun. The robot jolted for a moment, before lights on its face blinked to life, and it slowly leaned forward, staring at its hand.

"It's finished! " Twoearle cheered and jumped to her feet.

The robot turned to stare at her, before asking in a tinny voice. "What is my purpose?"

"Your purpose is to build three hundred more of yourself, and then to build a spaceship using the materials that I provide."

"I see." The robot looked down at its mechanical hands, and clenched them into fists with the sound of metal tapping into metal. "I am eager to begin."

The two of them led the robot to the hangar where they made a quick jump out of Earth's atmosphere, before setting out for the ring.

"I'm uploading the spaceship blueprints to you now, along with your own." Twoearle brought them to park on the space station. "Any questions?"

"..." The robot turned to face her. "Are you my creator?"

Isabella's ears shot up with obvious concern. "Um, Twoearle?"

"Yes, don't worry, I can share credit." Twoearle hurried to reassure her.

"That's not what I was-"

Twoearle ignored her and turned to address the robot. "I'm one of your creators. The other one is this cutie, right here." She pointed at the nervous looking young teen.

"I see." It answered simply. There was the sound of its hard drive spinning, before it turned and clomped its way to the exit ramp.

"Look at him go, I'm so proud." Twoearle gushed.

"I have a really bad feeling about this…" Isabella murmured.

* * *

Ever since she quit the twintail club, Erina had been kept very busy, even by her standards. She sighed, looking at the mountain of reports her mother had given her to read over, apparently in preparation for her inheriting the company. That pile sat right next to a similar one provided by the student council. Then later on there would be a company party to shake hands with investors, and the various heads of the different branch families. By the time that was done Erina would head straight for bed to sleep and get ready to do it all again the next day.

She sighed, and turned to Mikoto. "Would you please bring me an aspirin?"

"Right away, Milady." She bowed and left the room.

Isabella set about slowly working her way down the pile as the medicine did it's best to fight her growing headache. The afternoon wore on, and she found her motivation slowly draining away. She wasn't even halfway through the pile before she found herself doodling in the margins. No, she had to focus and finish up. Now wasn't the time to get distracted.

Summoning up the last of her willpower, she forced herself to finish, just in time to get dressed for her coming meeting. What followed was an endless stream of middle aged men, all of whom felt the need to comment that she looked so young for her age, and some of whom she walked away from feeling almost like she'd been slimed. At least she didn't have to wear heels, but she knew that day was coming soon. For now her height was charming, but one day she would need to impress and intimidate people, in which case the few extra inches would be important.

She had a long shower, before finally sinking into bed for an early night's rest. After all, she had a busy day tomorrow doing almost the exact same things. How long could this possibly go on for? Was this really going to be her job one day?

"Mikoto?" She called out.

"Yes, Milady?" Mikoto opened the door.

"Is… is this what the rest of my life will be like?"

"Yes, and no." Mikoto answered softly after a moment of thought. "Some days will be better or worse, but the biggest difference will be that in the future you will have power."

"...But I never wanted that." Erina whispered, and rolled over.

"I'm sorry, Milady, I didn't hear what you said."

"Don't worry about it." Erina sighed. "Good night, Mikoto."

"Goodnight, Milady." She slowly pulled the door shut, causing the light from the hall outside to shrink and disappear, leaving Erina alone and in the dark.

* * *

Aika and Souji walked together down the road, towards the Shindo family manor. It was a long walk, with forested mountains to either side of them, and a huge wooden fence that stretched all the way around the massive property before them. It looked almost like a movie set of an old feudal lord's palace, but the modern touches like asphalt on the road and rotating surveillance cameras grounded it in the 21st century.

There was an awkward silence that hung in the air about them, which was something they both weren't used to. Having known each other for as long as they had, it was unusual for them to feel like there wasn't much to talk about together. They were both comfortable with the other's silence or chatter, but somehow Souji felt like talking about twintails right then might have been a faux pass. She didn't want to talk about their hobbies, she wanted to talk with him about her feelings and how long he'd known about them for, and she wouldn't hear a word otherwise until then. He knew she was stubborn like that.

"I'm, uh, sorry about the other day." He started. "I mean, I was wrong to even imply what I was about to say."

She looked over at him, frowning. "Alright, and?"

It looked like she didn't even care about the apology at all. Souji swallowed, and looked forward. He'd been practicing this in his head, so it shouldn't be so hard to say out loud.

"Aika, I don't know how I feel about you. Or Erina, or Twoearle. I'm sixteen, and I want to defeat the Elemerians and I want to do it with you." That sounded pretty weak to his ears, but it was the best he had, and it was mostly true. His mouth felt dry as he waited for her answer.

"So it's just back to the status quo, then?" Aika grumbled, frowning ahead.

"Sorry." He lamely apologised.

"Things won't stay this way forever, Souji." Aika warned. "And when you're ready to choose I'll be waiting."

They walked in silence the rest of the way to the manor gates, although the atmosphere wasn't as tense so much as it was tired. At least it felt like they could talk to each other again.

He pushed the button on the intercom, and after a moment Mikoto's came from the small box. "Hello, this is the Shindo residence. Unless you've been invited here, I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave."

"Mikoto it's us. Just let Erina know we're here."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Souji."

"Why not?" Souji demanded.

"I'm afraid Erina doesn't want to see you right now."

"This is ridiculous." Aika reaches out and depressed the button. "Mikoto, let us in or replace the gate. Your call."

There was silence from the other side of the intercom.

"Aika, we can't just force our way in, that's trespassing!"

"We can't let them just brush us off."

"But that's breaking and entering-"

The intercom crackled back to life. "Opening the gate now. Please follow the maid." Soundlessly, the old fashioned wooden gate swung outwards, and on the other side of the two were greeted by a pair of uniformed guards and Sato in her black and white gothic lolita outfit. "Good evening." She bowed. "Please follow me and I'll take you to see Lady Shindo."

As unhappy as he was to see the newest Warrior, Souji was at least grateful for the chance to finally have a talk with Erina. As they passed through the halls, Souji couldn't help but think the western style maids seemed terribly out of place in the traditional Japanese style manor. _Miss Shindo must have some pretty weird interests._ In his head he just barely managed to prevent himself from imagining something inappropriate about what the family matriarch did with those maids. Considering Erina's preferences, maybe a deep rooted perversion ran in the family…

"Here we are." Sato told them, bowing again in front of a door they had been led to. "If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask any of the staff." With another smile that never quite reached her face, she turned around and serenely glided away to attend her duties.

"She doesn't make any sound when she walks." Aika pointed out.

"Really?" Souji tried to listen closely, but couldn't hear anything. "You might be right." He realised.

They watched until Sato disappeared around the corner before turning and opening the door.

"Erina?" Souji asked aloud, swinging the door open and freezing up at what he saw inside..

"Knock first!" Aika scolded him, before leaning past him to look inside, and pausing at the sight that greeted her.

"Good afternoon." Emu Shindo said from behind her large, mahogany desk. There was no one else in the room, and the desk was empty except for a single sheet of paper that was turned away from the two of them. Directly in front of Emu's desk were two chairs. "Please take a seat."

Souji looked to Aika and tilted his head inside. _Should we?_

She considered for a moment, glaring at the chairs, before nodding slowly.

Shoulder to shoulder they stepped into the room and sat down.

"This feels a little like an ambush." Aika said aloud, making direct eye contact with Emu.

The woman smiled tightly. "How has Sato been so far? Have there been any problems?"

There was a pause as the two glanced at each other, before Aika answered. "So far, no, but we were really here to talk to Erina."

"I understand, but I'm afraid that will be a problem moving forward." Emu steepled her fingers. "Speaking plainly, I'm going to have to ask you to stop trying to contact my daughter."

"What?" Souji demanded after a moment of stunned silence. "Why can't we talk to Erina?"

"You do very important work, for which you have my gratitude." Emu continued as though she hadn't heard him. "I understand and agree with your desire to take your campaign against the aliens to other worlds, and I'm happy to support you in almost any capacity within my power."

"Then why have you taken Erina?" Souji demanded, angrily. "She's a part of our team!"

"However." Emu once again continued, as though she hadn't heard Souji. "You must understand that what you do is dangerous work, and you've already had numerous close calls. As much as I'm willing to help you, I cannot allow my daughter to participate in something so dangerous, nor can I allow her to leave Earth.

She looked between them both. "For the sake of my daughter's safety, I need you to stop trying to contact her."

"Where's Erina?" Souji demanded. "Why can't she explain this to us herself?"

"As her mother and legal guardian, she does not need to be present. When I tell you this I speak with all the authority required."

"We're not going to take this!" He jumped out of his seat. "Erina would never betray us if you weren't making her somehow!"

Emu didn't say anything, just taking the document in front of her and turning around so it faced the two of them.

"What's that?" Souji demanded.

"It's a restraining order." Emu answered. " And you're going to sign it, and acknowledge that you agree to stay away from Erina, and stop trying to contact her."

Souji was confused for a moment. What was the point of an empty threat? The warriors were going to space in a few months, what did they care about a restraining order? "I don't care about something like that, I want to see-"

Aika grabbed his hand suddenly, cutting him off. "Read between the lines, Souji."

He looked at her for a moment, and tried to figure out what she might be trying to get at. Nothing came to mind. "I don't follow."

"She's blackmailing us, Souji." Aika glared across the desk at where Emu passively looked back at her. "What happens if we don't sign?"

"I take this to the public, and reveal the identities of Tailred and Tailblue."

"Yeah, I thought it would be that." Aika scowled.

"I don't care if I lose my secret identity! We're planning on leaving Earth anywa-Hey!" He looked on in shock as Aika reached across the table and grabbed the pen. "We can't sign that!"

"Souji, I have to." She replied, the frustration clear in her voice. "Maybe your mother can come into space with us, but my family can't just leave Earth, their entire lives are here. If it gets out that we're the warriors, what's to stop, say, the Chinese or the Americans or whoever from trying to use our families as leverage against us? We're running around in power armour, Souji. We make aircraft carriers look like obsolete paperweights! Our own government would kill for this." She indicated the brace on her arm.

Her words sunk in, and Souji grit his jaw. Maybe his mother would be willing to accompany him into space, but he couldn't bear the thought of harm coming to Aika's family, either. Who knew how many meals he had shared with them over the years?

"How can you do this?" He demanded of Emu, an awful feeling of helplessness burning away inside his chest. "There's no way Erina would agree to this!"

Emu didn't answer. She just reached under the table for a second pen and handed it to him.

Souji grit his jaw with frustration as Aika signed, but when she stepped aside and the sheet was turned to him, he was left with little choice.

Once they were done, Emu pushed a button under her desk, and a maid stepped in behind them. "Please escort these two to the front door."

Souji glared at her for one last moment, before he threw he his pen to the table with disgust and stalked out. Lingering for a moment, Aika twirled her pen between her fingers, before her arm shot outwards suddenly. There was a whip like crack in the room, and Emu flinched as she felt something land on her shoulder. When she looked to the side she found the long blonde strands of her twintail, severed at the point it connected to her scalp. There was a perfect hole in the wall directly behind her. This teenager had thrown her pen with such force it cut off one of Emu's tails, and went straight through the wooden panels like they were made of butter.

"Just know that if you do come after my family, there's no force on Earth that could possibly save you." Aika growled before adding, quietly. "You can have Sato back. We don't want her on the team."

With that said, she left the room, and slammed the door shut behind her with enough force that the frame cracked.

Only once she was alone did Emu breathe a sigh of relief, and let her head rest against the desk until her heart stopped pounding.

**AN: Anyone still reading this? Can't help but notice I'm not getting any reviews at all on the recent updates.**

**Sorry for the slow updates over the last few months. Updates slowed because of a bit of writer's block, but things should be updating weekly moving forwards again from now on.**

**Thanks to Enid for editing and being my sounding board.**


	36. 36 Honesty

**AN: Hey, sorry for the confusion guys, but I posted the chapters in the wrong order last week. If you're confused by what's happening, go back to chapter 34 and start from there.**

**Sorry about the mess.**

In little more than a month, the self replicating robot Twoearle and Isabella had made a thousand copies of itself, and together they had built the entire hull of the Tail cruiser. Looking at it from the bridge of her smaller drop shop, Twoearl couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. It wasn't yet finished, there were a lot of computers and internal circuitry that had yet to be installed, which was arguably the trickier part of the construction, but so far it looked good, especially with it's twin thrusters.

Due to her Twintail Elemera being gone, Twoearle couldn't actually design anything with twintails, not even a spaceship. To get that part of the design finalised, Twoearle had to work very closely with Isabella. Twoearle did all the math and rocket science related calculations while deliberately avoiding thinking of the finished product, while trusting Isabella to make it all fit together. Even now, Twoeale couldn't quite think about the final product without spacing out and drawing a blank, but there was no way the Twintail Warriors could fly around in a ship that left only one exhaust trail, that would just be blasphemous.

"Uh, hey Twoearle." Isabella pointed at the hull of the spaceship through one of the portholes. "What's that?"

Peering through the glass, Twoearle had to squint carefully to make out what she was looking at. "That wasn't in the design."

On top of the ship. The robots had for some reason used heat lasers to burn two long, complicated, curved lines into the top of the craft, with other lines branching out from the two main ones. It looked almost symmetrical, but with some clear differences between the two sides.

"...Is it just me does it look kinda like two faces almost kissing?" Isabella murmured and pointed at the far end of the pattern where a pair of triangles jutted from the top of one face. "Look, one of them has Catian ears."

"Oh, I get it." Twoearle laughed. "It's a mural to us, their creators. How cute."

"Wait, the robots are making _art_ now?"

"Looks like it." Twoearle sighed. " I'll just order them to undo it, so don't worry."

"I'm pretty worried right now!" Isabella snapped over her shoulder, before looking back out the porthole. "What is this, their religion?"

"I dunno, does it matter?" Isabella shrugged. "As long as it doesn't affect the hull's structural integrity."

"I've got a really bad feeling about this." Isabella sighed and stepped away from the window. "Are you going to tell Souji and Aika?"

"Nah, it's not a big deal." Twoearle waved a hand dismissively. "Besides, they've got a lot to deal with right now, what with the Erina situation."

"What's happening with that?" Isabella asked curiously.

"You haven't heard?" Twoearle spun in her chair to face the young catian. "Erina's mother filed a restraining order against Aika and Souji, and threatened to reveal their secret identities if they broke it."

"What?!" Isabella blurted, angrily. "That's blackmail!"

"Yeah, definitely." Twoearle agreed. "They were so pissed they took the white tailsuit from Sato and fired her."

"What the hell, _Shindo_?!" Isabella demanded, furiously. "How many times does someone have to save the world to get a little fucking gratitude?"

"Hey, language. Let's keep it clean for that T rating." Twoearle lectured.

Rather than calm down, Isabella only got angrier. "Why didn't Aika just rip her head off?"

"Uh, probably because she didn't want to kill the mother of the person she wants back on the team?"

"Does Erina know about this?" Isabella demanded.

"I doubt it, but I don't really know." Twoearle watched the girl pace back and forth. "Are you okay? You're getting really upset."

"I just can't believe anyone would be so- so- freaking stupid!"

"It seems like you're upset about a little more than that."

"Like what?" Isabella snapped.

"Look, I get why you're upset, but Aika's tough, she can take care of herself."

"I know!"

"And Souji is a little goofy, but he'll definitely be fine."

"I know!" Isabella growled. "But can't you see? This is such a betrayal! It's us against the aliens, and that woman wants to play silly games while _this_ is going on?!" She waved her hands towards the window where the ship was being constructed.

"Okay, I get it, I get it." Twoearle said soothingly, looking a little shocked. "Just calm down, alright?"

Isabella fell into a chair with an angry huff and pouted.

The bridge was silent for a moment and Twoearle turned back to the controls. She started to reach for the accelerator to take then away, but hesitated. "Uh, so do you wanna talk about what's _actually _got you so mad?"

It took a moment for Isabella to answer. "The North Nekoreans revealed some footage of Orchidmantisguildy disguised as me, attacking innocent people in Pyongnyan, and the rest of the world apparently thinks it's legit. The Ameowricans are demanding I surrender my tailsuit to them and some people are even blaming me for the nuke that almost killed Senpai."

"Oh." Twoearle winced in sympathy. "Yeah, okay. That's pretty bad."

"I'm just in a bad mood, now." Isabella leaned back in her chair. "They all just turned on me so quick, even after I saved them who knows how many times? It's not fair."

"It isn't." Twoearle agreed sympathetically.

"Even my dad asked if I really did it. I mean, he believed me when I said I didn't, but just that he had to ask!"

"That sucks, it really does." Twoearle sighed.

"I swear, the next time I see Orchidmantisguildy I'm going to kill him with my hands if I have to."

"You still doing karate with Aika?"

"No, I haven't been alone with her since… you know…"

"Since your confession, right?" Twoearle finished.

"Yeah." Isabella put her head in her hands. "Being a hero is hard, you know? It's like every little mistake that wouldn't be a big deal normally, kinda gets multiplied by like a billion and is suddenly super important." She looked up at Twoearle. "Like, normally if you trust an asshole he'll get you drunk and pregnant or whatever, but that's only your life he's ruining, but when I trust the wrong guy, the whole world almost gets destroyed."

Immediately, Twoearle's mind went to her home world, and Aisana. Her narcissistic belief in her own invulnerability would normally only have eventually destroyed herself, but in this case had ruined an entire world. Her relationship with Aisana would normally only have destroyed the young girl's life, but now she was Dark Glassper and out bringing more worlds under the heel of Ultraguil.

Every mistake was multiplied by a factor of billions. Even just a couple of months ago when she almost caused two worlds to collide...

"Are you okay?"

Twoearle was snapped out of her reverie, by a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Twoearle smiled and quickly rubbed a little speck of dust from her eye. "I just want some fresh air, let's go back to Earth."

Without waiting for Isabella's answer she accelerated away from the rapidly growing tail cruiser.

* * *

"Senpai!" A familiar voice called out over the din of the crowd of uniformed students, and they all turned their heads to see a pink eared cat girl waving her hand excitedly in the air. It was the sort of thing someone might see in the middle of Tokyo, not at the front gates of a relatively rural high school like this one. The girl wearing the cat ears and cat tail was expensively dressed in designer clothes that almost seemed to glisten in the afternoon sun.

"Isabella?" Aika asked, surprised to see her friend here. "What are you doing here?" She rushed over, glancing at the crowd self consciously.

"Oh, I've got some business here on Earth." Isabella answered casually, and Aika winced.

The older teen reached out and pulled Isabella into a hug, to disguise the fact she was whispering in her ear. "Your ears are out in public."

It was only when Aika let go of her and pulled away, that she noticed Isabella was flushing pink. The confession jumped to mind, and immediately Aika felt guilty. "Sorry, I-"

"Don't worry about it, Senpai." Isabella smiled weakly. "Ah, a-anyway. I just wanted to ask if you were ready to continue our karate lessons?"

That set the curious onlookers to murmuring among themselves again. There had long been rumours about the source of Aika's bizarre strength, and that was before her training in the gravity room over the summer holidays. Apparently, the story that her grandfather had told her parents about training in Okinawa had gotten exaggerated when they filtered back to the student body. Many of the more manga obsessed teens told outlandish stories about secret super soldier programs being coordinated between Tokyo and Washington at the American base in Okinawa. Others suggested Aika had gone there to be possessed by some kind Fox spirit, which was the source of her inhuman might. The more outlandish rumours weren't even that far from the truth.

Now, an obviously rich catgirl was here calling Aika her Senpai and asking about karate lessons, so who knew what the rumour mill might spit back out about that? Aika scratched the back of her head awkwardly and tried not to think about all the unwanted attention she was getting.

"Uh, yeah, no problem." She quickly agreed. "Have you kept up your training on your own time?"

Isabella's expression turned a little sheepish. "Not really." At Aika's immediate look of disapproval she hurriedly continued. "A-Anyway, I just, uh, wanted to talk quickly. About... _us_."

"Aika's being confessed to by a girl!" Someone in the crowd called out.

The last thing Aika wanted was more rumours about her. "Isabella right here might not be the pla-"

"Sorry, Senpai, I just need to get this over with before I lose my nerve." Isabella cut across her, before scrunching up her fists and taking a deep breath.

"But we can use a classr-"

"When we first met, I was alone and miserable." Isabella barrelled ahead. "I blamed everyone else for hating me while doing everything I could to frustrate them and drive them away. You saved my life, and spent time with me, and asked for nothing in return. So thank you for being my friend when no one else would."

By this point Aika had fallen silent, and simply listened to Isabella's speech.

"I know that the time we spent together didn't mean as much to you as it did to me, but I'll always be grateful for the kindness and patience you showed me. Even if we can only ever be friends, I'll always love you." Leaning up on her tiptoes, she kissed Aika on the cheek, before blushing and pulling away. "So thank you."

There was a moment before some people in the crowd gave an applause, while Aika stood there with a sad look on her face. "I'm really sorry, Isabella."

"Please don't be. I've been really happy since we met." She summoned up a watery smile and rubbed at her eyes. After sniffling once, she turned away. "But, uh, if things don't work out with Souji, just remember that my family is crazy rich."

It was said in jest, but Aika could hear Isabella's hopeful tone. "I'll keep it in mind."

Isabella cleared her throat and turned back to face Aika. "Anyway, I've, uh, got one last thing to do here. Promise not to be mad?"

"About what?"

"Bye everyone!" Isabella waved at the crowd, ignoring Aika. A few of them called goodbye back to her, before she hurried away, down the road she came up.

Almost immediately, Aika was swarmed with other students wanting to know the full story of the rich cat girl who's life she'd saved. The only excuse Aika could give that they would accept was that it was classified.

* * *

The Shindo manor proved a little tricky for Isabella to find. The town was unfamiliar after all, so in the end she had asked an elderly looking Hunan couple where to go, and they explained where to find the Shindo manor. They had thought Isabella's 'animatronic' ears were quite novel and asked to touch them, which she obliged seeing how helpful they were.

After that it wasn't far to walk to reach the manor. Some people might have been struck by the size and obvious wealth of the property, but not the daughter of a billionaire. To her the Shindo manor almost seemed rustic by comparison to her own family's opulence.

"Hello, let me in." Isabella spoke into the intercom the moment she heard it connect.

"Miss, you're not on the guest register." The voice of a woman came over the line. "Please go back the way you came this is private property."

"Alrighty, then." Isabella cracked her knuckles and declared. "We do this the easy way." The pink light of transformation washed over her, and she easily leapt over the gate in a single bound.

Immediately, security guards rushed over to detain her, but were stopped in their tracks when Isabella raised her arm and activated the tentacle Elemera she found among the pile they gathered from the Elemerians Tailyellow defeated. The guards were immediately immobilised by long, slimey, ropey tentacles that wrapped around them and suspended them in the air in a large bundle. The writhing mass trailed in the air behind Pink as she walked up the manor driveway. The guards struggled and tried to escape the wet mass, but found it impossible.

From the building emerged more guards carrying tasers, and batons, but they all drew to a surprised halt at the sight of their compatriots. In her maid uniform, Sato stepped out from behind the group and approached Pink.

"Miss Pink, please leave the premises right now, before we're forced to remove you."

"Yeah, good luck with that without the White Tailsuit." Pink smirked, before scanning the crowd for Mikoto's familiar face. Not finding it, she sighed and swapped out the tentacle elemera for a panty shot Elemera, and her vision changed to a series of hologram-like grids and lines that allowed her to see through walls. The guards suspended in the air fell to the ground in a bundle, as the tentacles withdrew back into Pink's wrist compartment. It took a moment to get used to the new vision mode, but after a few seconds of searching she found Erina, Mikoto, and Emu in what looked like a security office on the second floor of the main building.

"We'll talk later." Pink said to Sato, before jumping up to a balcony on the second story, and letting herself in through the window. She jogged through the halls, ignoring the carved wood panels and framed Kanji artworks until she came to the security office door and turned off her vision.

The door swung open from the inside and Emu Shindo stood there, glaring sternly. "If you don't leave right away, I w-"

"You can't blackmail me, _bitch_, my family is in a different universe." Pink shoved past her and stepped into the office. "Hey, Erina." She smiled happily at the sight of her.

"Pink, you can't talk to my mother like that." Erina breathed out, scandalised.

"Yeah, maybe that wasn't cool." Pink agreed. "But she did threaten Aika and Souji's families if they ever tried to contact you, so I think it's pretty fair."

"What?" She looked shocked, and turned to her mother. "Mother, what's she talking about?"

Emu remained stone faced, not answering at all.

"Anyway, I'm kinda mad at you." Pink told Erina. "We're friends and you didn't even say goodbye to me?"

Erina looked guiltily at the floor.

"Whatever." Pink sighed, and reached into her pocket to take out the Yellow bracer. "This is yours." She reached out and took Erina's wrist, before sliding it on. "It's still registered to the catapult, so you can come to the base anytime you want."

"Why are you giving this to me?" Erina asked. "I'm not a warrior anymore."

"Yes, you are." Pink dismissed. "Besides, even if we leave, the Earth might still need a protector. We're leaving half a month from now on the fourth, so if you change your mind before that you know how to contact us."

"I-I can't go with you guys, I have too many responsibilities here on Earth." Erina protested.

"That's your decision to make." Pink shrugged. "But I've realised something, which is kinda stupidly obvious, but I think it's pretty good advice: you probably shouldn't do things that will make you miserable and lonely." She looked around at the manor, and shook her head sadly. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I'll talk to you soon." She took a step away and pushed a button on her wrist. There was a flash of blue light and she teleported away.

Mother and daughter stood in silence for a moment.

"Did you really...?" Erina asked.

After a moment Emu answered carefully. "I do what I have to in order that you can stay safe. You will do the same for your children when the time comes." At the betrayed look on Erina's face, she sighed and reached out to cup her daughter's cheek.

Biting her lip, Erina jerked away from her touch.

Emu sighed. "I'm sorry, I should have told you. After all, I do intend for you to take over the family business one day. I need to learn to trust you with these things, more."

With that lone admission of guilt, she turned and walked away to put her house in order, leaving her daughter alone with her conflicted feelings. Or at least that was her plan, until a small hand seized the hem of her sleeve.

Surprised, Emu looked back to see her daughter standing there, tears in her eyes.

"How could you?" She demanded.

"Erina, calm yourself." Emu spoke in warning tones.

"Mother, I trusted you!" Erina hissed. "You said you would take care of it."

"I _did_ take care of it."

"Did you?!" Erina snapped back, holding up the yellow tailsuit Pink had given her.

"Don't speak to me like that." Was growled right back at her.

"You didn't just blackmail my friends, Mother. I trusted you!"

"You're being irrational-"

"No, you're being irrational!" Erina yelled and jerked away. "Why did you think I would be okay with that?"

"Do not speak to me like this, I am your mother!" Emu barked and stood to her full height, towering over her daughter. "I did what was necessary to protect his family, and to protect _you._"

For a long moment Erina stood there, trembling.

It was Emu who eventually broke the silence. "I'm sorry I've upset you, but-"

"No you're not." Erina cut across her. "You're not even a little bit sorry at all."

Her mother grimaced at that. "I've had enough of this, your place isn't to argue with me. It's to learn and do as you're told."

"...No."

"What did you just say to me?" Emu asked in disbelief.

"I said, 'No!'" Erina snapped and pulled the bracer over her wrist.

"Take that off right now!" Emu demanded, but her daughter ignored the command and a wave of golden light washed over Erina.

Tailyellow stood in her daughter's place, now standing taller than her mother and meeting her glare. "When you're ready to apologise, call me."

"Stop right now-"

It was already too late, Yellow had thrown open the office window and jumped right out.

"Get back up here!" Emu snapped, and ran to the window.

"And don't just apologise to me!" Erina answered from the floor below, walking backwards to the gate. "But to Souji, and Aika too!" With that she turned and leapt, clearing the fence easily and soon disappeared out of sight, running down the road towards town.


	37. 37 Momma

As a mother, Miharu was more than used to wiping away children's tears. Many a time she had given her son a shoulder to cry on. In the past it mostly happened when Souji was kicked out of the boy's group for his loud obsession with twintails, but there were a few times when she offered the same service to Aika when Miharu's son tried to exclude her from games for being a girl, but such were the conflicts of young children. Occasionally cruel, but mostly pointless and easily solved with a warm drink, some cookies and a few soft words. That said, in this case the one crying into Miharu's bosom was actually eighteen years old, and their problems seemed to be a lot more serious than could be solved with snacks and consolations, but at least they looked the part of a child.

Miharu had just been about to close the cafe when Tailyellow had come through the door, tears streaming down her face and sniffling up a storm. The moment she transformed back into Erina, Miharu's maternal instincts had taken over and she embraced the girl while she cried her eyes out. It was a full on ugly cry, too, with a contorted red face and fluid leaking not just from the eyes, but the nose as well. By the time it was all over, the front of Miharu's shirt was thoroughly damp, and faintly sticky.

Ignoring that as best she could, she directed Erina to a chair, gave her a handkerchief to clean up with and set out some hot chocolate for the both of them, before she took the seat across from her to better listen to the girl's problems now that she was a little more composed.

"Feeling better now?"

Miharu smiled gently, as Erina blew her nose and nodded, giving a weak and watery smile. "Yes, thank you. And sorry for barging in."

"That's okay, dear, you're more than welcome." She took a sip of her own hot chocolate, and was more than pleased with it. After running a cafe for years she was pretty sure she could make a goddamn incredible hot chocolate by anyone's standards. Perfect as a pick me up for a distressed young girl.

Erina shyly took a sip of her drink, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise as she looked down into her cup.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Miharu quickly suppressed her smirk. "So, what was that about?"

Erina fidgeted for a second, before saying hoarsely, "I had a fight with Mother." The tone she uttered that with and the way she nervously glanced up at Miharu made it sound almost like she was confessing to a crime. It was cute, really, but that would be cruel to say.

"I see." Miharu replied, seriously. "What about?"

"...I told Mother about the Warriors and she wanted me to quit, so I did, but then she blackmailed Souji and Aika to never talk to me again, by threatening to reveal their secret identities." Erina explained.

"Oh, my." Miharu covered her mouth. "That is serious." A lot more serious than she was expecting, honestly. Maybe she needed to break out the marshmallows…

Nodding miserably, Erina looked down and sipped again. "I just don't know what to do."

"Oh, that's easy." Miharu reached out and gently clasped Erina's hand. "I don't think I need to tell you what to do at all."

Erina looked surprised. "But-"

"No buts." Miharu shook her head. "You know as well as I what needs to be said, and to whom."

Biting her lip, Erina looked down at the table nervously.

At the sad sight, Miharu relented. "If you need some time to work up the courage you can stay here for as long as you need."

"...Thank you." Erina drained the last of her mug, and set it down on the table.

* * *

It took Erina a few days, during which she didn't see any of the others at all. Aika and Souji went to school each morning, none the wiser that Erina was sharing a room with Miharu in the meantime. The only clue that Erina was there at all was when Mikoto came over to deliver a bag of toiletries and clothes. For the three days, Erina didn't go to school and she avoided her friends completely, choosing to hide from them. The guilt at what Mother had done to them in Erina's name was unbearable. How could she ever face them when she couldn't even face her own family?

Eventually, something had to give.

One morning, Erina simply decided to take things one step at a time. First she got dressed for the day and had breakfast, then she pulled her shoes on and put one foot in front of the other until she was all the way across town and walking up the driveway of her home. When she arrived home, the gate to the compound swung open without her even needing to touch the intercom, and Mikoto with a team of maids were waiting there to greet her.

"Welcome back, Mistress." She intoned, bowing her head and curtsying.

"Thank you, Mikoto." Erina smiled at the sight of her, despite the nervous butterflies in her belly. "Is Mother available?"

"The Master will see you right away."

Erina didn't like that Mikoto was being so formal. "Please lead me there."

The maids were as dutiful as ever, taking her straight to her mother's office. Erina wished they would be a little less cold under the circumstances.

Mikoto announced Erina's presence to Emu, and after waiting a moment, heard from inside, "Send her in."

Inside, Erina found her mother looking as fierce and unruffled as ever, or at least that was her first impression. Upon closer examination she could see what looked like grey beginning to show at the roots of her Emu's hair, and the faint discoloration where makeup was used to disguise the rings under her eyes.

Evidently, Erina wasn't the only one who was stressed these last few days. She took all this in as the door was closed behind her and she sat down in the chair before the desk.

"Well, I think it's appropriate to start with an apology." Her mother began, then paused, expectantly.

Internally Erina agreed, but disagreed that she should go first. Instead, she decided to cut to the chase. "Mother, I'm going with the other Warriors when they leave Earth." There was a long silence, during which she watched her mother's jaw clench and unclench.

"No, I forbid it." She replied flatly.

"How are you going to stop me?"

"You are my daughter, and you will listen to me-"

"No." Erina answered back defiantly.

Emu's lips pulled back into a furious snark and she stood up to her full height as her daughter remained seated, "How dare you even speak of abandoning your family."

"Mother, you can't blackmail the Elemerians." Her daughter argued. "Twintails have been a symbol of our clan since the Sengoku Era. I'm not talking about something abstract or some high ideal like defending the world, I'm talking about protecting you and the family." Then she added, quietly, "Not just my friends."

For a long moment Emu stared at her before she fell back and sat down heavily in her chair. "What of the inheritance? What happens to me when you're gone?"

"I'll be back." Erina promised. "Even if I'm gone for ten or fifteen years, I will come back."

"...I still don't approve. Your place is here, with me." Emu declared.

"... I'm not abandoning you." Was all Erina had to say to that.

"That's exactly what you're doing! While you're off having your grand adventure, I'll be here fighting off the branch family." Emu answered bitterly. "And if I don't have an heir, they're going to win."

"You do have an heir, just tell them I'm going on a world tour or something." Erina offered.

"For ten years?" Emu snorted and rubbed at her eyes. "Why are you doing this to me? I was always worried about the sort of trouble you would get up to in your rebellious years, and I counted myself lucky when I thought the transforming power warrior toys you hid from me would be the worst of it. Little did I know it would lead to this."

"...I'm sorry for the trouble, mother."

"No you're not." Emu scowled. "If you really were sorry you wouldn't do this to me." After a moment to gather her bearings she waved her hand dismissively. "Well, go then if I can't stop you. I hope you have fun with your friends while I clean up the mess you've left behind."

With nothing left to be said, Erina gave her mother a respectful bow and left the room.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

* * *

The clacking of Dark Grasper's heels echoed up and down the dark corridor, sounding ominous even to her own ears as it announced her presence to all. She had never worn heels when she was Anko Aisana, but after living among the Elemerians she found that she almost needed the damn uncomfortable things just to get by. The sense of presence they offered her in terms of height and percussion were indispensable, even if they made her feel like she was riding too high from the floor and she was about to fall over at any moment.

Despite her confident strut and the swaying of her hips, Grasper really was doing her best to hide the deep feeling of intimidation she was experiencing. Living among evil aliens that preyed upon humans was nerve wracking at the best of times, and did wonders for a teen girl learning to manage her poker face, but to be called out by the Space Marshal of the entire Eastern Expansion was not something she had expected.

I really wish Mega-Nee was here. Alas, the robot had to stay behind in the drop ship. It definitely wouldn't be appropriate for Dark Grasper to bring a lowly machine into the presence of one so highly ranked.

The door to the conference room slid open, and Dark Grasper was momentarily blinded by the bright light from inside that shone into her eyes. Raising her hand to block the light would be a sign of weakness, and so would squinting to see. All she could was stand there confidently as she was addressed by a deep, bass rumble from inside the room.

"Ah, Grasper you're here." There was a chuckle so deep and loud she felt it in her chest like the bassline at a club. "Come in."

Her eyes quickly adjusted as she stepped inside, though all she could make out from the glare were dark silhouettes against a bright white backdrop. The only thing she could tell was that most of them were human sized, and had the distinctive shape of twintails on the sides of their heads.

"Have a seat." The voice ordered, and Grasper subtly felt her way to chair at the far end of what seemed like a conference table. "How was the hunt for the traitor, Phoenixgildy?"

"I'm afraid he escaped." Grasper answered quickly, "Who am I speaking to?"

The light dimmed as it was lowered to the floor and at last she was able to see who was addressing her. At the far end of the room stood an absolutely enormous Elemerians, who had to be at least eleven feet tall, his head and neck covered in a dark furry mantle. His eyes glowed red, and his massive canine teeth poked last his lips. "I'm Fenrirgildy, the Destroyer of Worlds."

Immediately Grasper's stomach clenched and she bowed low. "Space Martial, it's an honour to meet you."

"Oh, it's too late for that." The massive wolf monster chuckled. "After your string of failures, the time for formalities has passed."

Terror raised the hairs on the back of Grasper's neck, and she quickly rushed to defend herself. "S-s-sir, I-"

"The Twintail Warriors you failed to secure have developed space flight technology, and have now even disrupted the harvest on another world. Not only that, but they've driven away four separate attack forces from their homeworld, and even one on the secondary world. The first time anything like it has happened in thousands of years." Those dark red eyes. Narrowed on Grasper. "How could this happen?"

"Th-th-the situation was completely out of hand long before I arrived." Grasper hurriedly defended herself. "They had already defeated Dragongildy, Leviathangildy and Krakengildy before I ever even laid eyes on the planet."

"Yes… Those fools paid for their failures with their lives, which is the only thing that spared yours." His lips pulled back, exposing even more and even bigger teeth. "All I can say to you is… Welcome to the team!"

The blinding lights were flicked off entirely, and there was a pop and spray of confetti across the conference table. Now finally able to see, Dark Grasper saw a red banner on the far wall that read, 'Welcome on board!' in bright sparkly silver font with three exclamation marks and balloons tied to the corners.

All around the table, Dark Grasper could see a group of seven twintailed human girls, all wearing what looked like tailsuits. They all clapped for her, smiling at the new addition to their team.

"Welcome, Dark Grasper, to the Anti-twintail-warrior, Twintail Warrior team." Fenrirgildy announced, clapping and winking. "I just thought with all the mistakes you've been making lately that you might appreciate a little hands on time with some of Ultimagil's finest, see if they can't teach you a few things to help you out."

The relief that washed over Grasper was so strong that tears sprung in her eyes. I thought I was going to be harvested!

"Look, she's so happy she's crying!" One of the Anti-Warriors giggled, a small brunette with fluffy hair, and came forward to give Grapser a tissue.

Another added, "So cute." And gave her a quick hug.

Fenrirgildy chuckled warmly. "I know there aren't a lot of humans serving the Empire, so I'm sure you'll appreciate the company of other people." In the centre of the desk was a glass of fruit punch, from which Fenrirgildy filled a number of disposable plastic cups that looked much too small in his hands. He passed them around to the girls, and one found its way to Grasper, which she quickly raised over her head when the others did so. "A toast, to new friends!"

"'New friends!" The girls chorused back.

"And death to the Twintail Warriors!"

"'Death to the Twintail Warriors!'"

As Grasper sipped her cup and surveyed the half dozen Anti-Warriors in the room, she couldn't help but worry about Twoerle and Tailred. There was no way they could defeat such a force, and she certainly didn't want them to die.

Resisting Ultimagil really is futile...


	38. 38 Big Enough but Look At the Location!

The abruptness with which the tail cruiser was completed caught Souji completely by surprise. Somehow in his mind, leaving Earth was a distant thing that would happen a long time from now, but those months slipped by quickly, until suddenly it was time to pack his things and go. He and Aika were both sitting in the classroom during lunch when their communicators suddenly buzzed.

"The ship's finished." Twoerle's voice abruptly announced. "Head straight to the secret base after school and I'll give everyone a tour."

Thanks to the imagine flak, no one else in the room heard Twoerle's message, or saw the worried look that Aika and Souji exchanged.

The rest of the day melted away even faster, as Souji anxiously realised he was going to have to say goodbye to his mother in the coming days. Tuning out in his chair, he didn't even hear a word the teacher said, and barely noticed the changing subjects in class enough to swap out his textbooks. The day disappeared in the blink of an eye, and he only came to when he noticed that he and Aika were both sitting silently in an empty classroom.

"I was very gung-ho when I told Mum and Dad, earlier." Aika said. "But now it's here I kinda don't want to go through with it…"

Swallowing down his own feelings, Souji took a breath to say something, but ended up letting it out and only nodded in agreement.

In silence they stood up and packed their things, and feeling lonely, Souji grabbed his friend's hand just to hold it.

"Wh—?" She startled at the touch, but when she saw the expression on his face, she looked away. They could have taken the catapult to the Secret Lab from the club room, but instead they walked home like that, if only to drag out the time until they had to say goodbye to their families. Only when they arrived in front of their homes did they let go of each others' hands.

"I'll be over as soon as I can." Aika said. "But this might take a while."

Compared to her mother, father, sister, grandfather and grandmother, Souji only really had one person to say goodbye to. "I'll wait." He promised her.

After taking one last moment to steel herself, Aika walked up the pathway to her house and closed the door behind her as she went inside. Souji wished her luck as he stepped inside the cafe to deliver his own bad news.

"Mum?" He called out when he found the restaurant empty and the closed sign in the door. "Are you here?"

"I'm just upstairs!" Mitsuka called down to him.

He found her in her bedroom, with a large wheeled suitcase sat on the end of her bed that she was filling with clothes.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Oh, didn't Twoerle tell you? She finished the ship. I was just starting to pack."

"You're coming with us?"

"Oh, I hope you're not disappointed." She told him. "You're only teenagers, I can't let you go unsupervised."

"Mum…"

"Besides, I've always wanted to go to space."

She reached up and cupped his cheek. "I hope you understand."

More than just understanding, he pulled her into a hug, feeling nothing but relief.

* * *

Currently the Tail Cruiser was parked next to the giant ring, an enormous distance away from Earth and far outside the range of the catapult, so to get to it everyone would have to ferried over in the smaller Tail Ship. Because she didn't want to make multiple trips, Twoearle decided to wait for everyone to be there before taking off. Souji and Mitsuka shared an elevator with Erina, while Isabella came through the Catyu portal leaving Aika as the only one missing.

"What's taking her so long, didn't she come home with you?" Twoearle asked Souji.

"I think it's a family issue. We can wait a few more minutes, she shouldn't be long."

Twoearle didn't complain after that, but she was pretty clearly agitated at it taking so long.

It was another fifteen minutes before the elevator came back down the shaft. The doors parted with a ding to reveal a very angry looking Aika, who strode out to greet the rest of the group with an apology.

"Sorry about that, everyone." She apologised.

"Alright, now that we're all here..." Twoearle turned around and led them into the ship.

It was Mitsuka's first time being in a spaceship, and she excitedly pressed her nose right up against the glass to watch the Earth shrink away, but for everyone else it was a familiar experience. In one corner of the bridge, Isabella quietly asked Erina how things were with her mother, and only recieved a long sigh in response.

While that was happening, Aika slowly sidled up to Souji. "Hey."

"How did things go with your family?" He asked.

"Fine, I guess. Mum cried, but I am leaving her for a long time, so that's normal I guess… Dad called Grandfather to see if he could talk me out of it."

"Did he try?"

"No." Aika scowled. "But he did ask to see you."

Oh, that didn't sound fun. The last time he'd talked to the man Souji had wrongly told him his granddaughter was dead. Since then he'd apparently had arguments with Aika about Souji's lack of character, and accused him of being a deviant. Which… you know, okay was sort of true, but to be real she was far from normal as well? In Souji's mind it was hard to imagine someone who could possibly need less protection than the violent, flat chested gorilla girl who could probably lift the front of a flatbed truck with her bare hands.

Regardless, Souji still had a lot of respect for the man. "Alright, I'll stop by later."

"...Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Through the window ahead of them the Tail Cruiser grew from a small grey brick to a vast ship that utterly dwarfed their frigate. It had a roughly circular shape, with two large thrusters hanging off the back of it.

"How big is it?" Souji asked Twoearle.

"Two hundred and five meters from stern to keel. There's enough rooms in there for a thousand crew members."

"Why so many?" Erina asked. "There's only the five of us."

"Room to grow." Twoearl answered. "I want an entire army of Twintail Warriors, and I want to build even more cruisers and fill those up with warriors too. There's millions of Elemerians out there, and probably billions of Ultiroids. The five of us just won't be enough, especially if we want to take on a full sized armada."

The ship came to dock in the hangar, passing through some kind of energy barrier that allowed them to pass without letting the air out. What was with Twoearle's technology? From power armour to spaceships, to teleporters and force fields. Any single one of these would make someone a famous Nobel Prize winner on Earth, let alone all of them put together. She couldn't possibly have invented all of them, could she? If not then her homeworld must have been a lot more advanced than Earth.

There was enough room in the hanger for plenty more ships, and the excess of room was something that came up again and again. Most of the hallways were wide enough for a car to drive down, and all the bedrooms were comfortably spacious. There were plenty of bathrooms with large attached baths, and the cabinets were even stocked with some very luxurious hair and skin care products.

"Isabella's paid for all the ship's stocks, so a lot of it's really high quality. For real, we're having caviar and black truffles for dinner tonight." Twoearle explained.

Isabella added. "I thought everyone might like something nice while we could afford the luxury. Daddy wanted to make sure I had everything I would need."

The other thing Souji noticed was all the robots running around busily. All across the ship they were carrying crates of supplies, double checking atmospheric conditions making sure everything was in working order. That was all well and good, but there was a particular feature of their design that he just had to ask about.

"Why do so many of your robots have wigs?"

"Uh, well, somehow they synthesised nylon out of the raw materials in the ring, and styled a bunch of twintails for themselves." Twoearle explained.

"Wait, they did that on their own?" Aika looked at one more closely.

The robot's hair came in a variety of bright colours, but pink and white seemed to be the most popular choices. There were also purples, oranges and greens mixed in that didn't match up with any existing warrior. All the robots had a thick shouldered, square hipped, masculine shape that didn't suit their artificial hair at all.

"It looks weird." Souji said.

Immediately a passing robot carrying a number of cylinders paused and looked directly at him. "Why does it look weird?" It demanded in a flat, mechanical voice. "This is the creator's preference."

"Uh… well, you have a masculine shape, like me." Souji explained after the surprise wore off. He glanced over his shoulder to where Twoearle looked like she was bored and waiting for him to finish, while Isabella looked worried.

"Why is that important?" The robot pressed.

"Well, I mean, men can wear twintails, but everyone knows they look best on girls."

The robot stared at him in silence for a long moment, before looking away and returning to its business.

"Uh… was that okay?" Souji asked Twoearle.

"Why wouldn't it be?" She dismissed with a wave of her hand and continued the tour. "And this is the training room. For your sake Aika, I had the deck reinforced enormously, so you should be able to make it all the way up to a hundred times Earth Gravity without crashing through the floor like last time…"

* * *

The tour took about an hour, and was pretty helpful all things considered. Although he doubted he would ever need to go to a lot of the places they visited, Souji knew he would ever be able to find them without the tour. When it was done Twoearle ferried the Warriors back to Earth.

As they landed she asked, "We can leave right now, but I figure everyone will want the chance to say goodbye and double check that they packed all their stuff. I say we set out Monday morning, which gives us all the weekend to get ready."

No one had any objections to that at all. In fact, Souji couldn't remember the last time his mother seemed so excited. She was a little less excited when she got home and Aika's mother barged into the cafe to see if she could convince Mitsuka to help talk their children into staying on Earth.

While that was going on, Souji decided to rip the band aid off and go talk to Kenta right away. No doubt this would be a tense and unpleasant little conversation so it was better to just get it over with.

When he arrived at Kenta's home, Souji found the old man waiting inside the doujo, seated in seiza position on the floor. He man didn't give a greeting, but instead waved to a space in front of himself to indicate where Souji should sit. After he sat down there was a long moment of intense staring while Kenta glared at him.

"I've been told you'll be leaving Earth soon."

"Yeah, Monday."

The old man frowned. "So soon? Hm."

"I'll do everything I can to keep her safe."

He scoffed at that.

"What?"

"Why should I trust your word when you already failed once?"

The accusation in his voice hit Souji almost like a physical blow. "What?"

"At this point it's clear to me your promise isn't worth much, so instead I'll say this: Come back with my granddaughter or don't come back at all." Kenta said, levelly, before standing up and making his way to the door. "Now you can go."

"...No."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

When he spoke, Souji was surprised by the barely restrained anger in his voice. "I mean what else do you think I'm going to do? Of course I'm bringing her back, and I don't know why you would think I wouldn't."

Rather than answer the man stood there with his back turned.

"I don't know what you think you're doing. Maybe you don't remember, but you taught me karate in this dojo, too. I never knew my father and I always looked up to you… We might not be related by blood, but whatever else has happened, I still care about you enough to give you a warning of my own."

Kenta scoffed. "And what's that?"

Souji's voice softened. "Your granddaughter is leaving in just a few days, and she could be gone for as long as a decade, if not more. You're sixty, Sensei. You might never see her again."

The man stiffened up, his careful composure cracking.

"Instead of picking a fight with her, or me, you should be getting the most of the time you have with her… No matter what else, she loves you. Don't make her last memory of you a painful one…"

Kenta opened his mouth and closed it, before breathing out through his nose and leaving. Souji lingered for a moment longer, then left the way he came.

* * *

There wasn't too much to get ready before Monday. With Isabella's money and Twoearle's technical skills there wasn't any trouble at all getting the ship loaded with the necessary supplies. Just to be sure, Aisha double checked everything and found that the two had supplied the ship with adequate materials to serve the needs of up to a hundred people for up to a year in space. As long as they didn't get lost or shipwrecked or something else like that, they would be perfectly safe for the two months it would take them to reach Locale.

That left Erina with little to do other than return to her house for some personal effects. For her journey she decided to bring her Sentai toy collection, her collection of manga volumes, some of her teddy bears, and some of the furniture from her room that she found comfortable. It was only when she finished choosing what to bring that she realised she would have to carry it all back to Souji's cafe by herself. No doubt it would be an easy task for Tail Yellow, but it would also be rather inconspicuous for a local super hero to waltz down the street carrying it all.

"Mikoto?" She asked the maid. "Would you help me drive some of this to the Secret Base?"

"Of course, but we won't be able to fit all this into my car I'm afraid. Also, the shelves and bedding had to be installed by the movers. They'll be difficult to get down the stairs, and will probably need a truck to be moved across town."

After thinking it over a little more, the easiest solution was just to call Aika to do the heavy lifting, who promised to be there shortly. Apparently she had already helped Isabella with a similar problem earlier that day. After taking one look at the stairs, she decided to make the task easier for herself by taking all the books off the shelf, and simply lowered the large item over the balcony to the ground by rope.

Once it was down she picked it up by hand and called up to Erina, "I'll have to make a few trips for the rest of it!" Then she hefted the seven foot by five foot load of polished mahogany and gold leaf over her shoulder, before walking out the gate and down the road.

"...Someone that skinny being that strong makes my brain hurt to look at it." Mikoto admitted, still dumbfounded despite herself.

They loaded the other smaller object into the trunk of Mikoto's car without much conversation. They were able to get all of it in without trouble, though some of Erina's personal effects ended up stacked on the back seat. The drive across town was made in relative silence and they passed Aika on the way, who looked comically small compared to what she was carrying. Despite knowing it was no real challenge to her, Erina felt a mixture of guilt and gratitude to the younger Warrior.

At the cafe, Mrs Mitsuka greeted them at the door to help carry their items to the elevator.

"Will you be coming with us to Twoearle's homeworld?" She asked the maid.

The question was so startling to Erina that she completely dropped what she was carrying.

Luckily it was only a bag full of clothes, so nothing was damaged, but she could only stare at her maid in shock. The thought to ask Mikoto about her plans had never even occurred to her. Of course that was selfish and presumptuous, but her maid had been by her side for so long that she had all but forgotten the time when she wasn't there. The idea that the two of them could be separated hadn't crossed her mind even once.

In response to the question, Mikoto herself looked troubled. "The Mistress and I have yet to talk about it."

Sensing that she had bumped into something of a personal topic, Mrs Mistuka quickly changed the subject to whether or not she should bring some nice formalwear for her son or not. After all, he might need to attend a banquet with a princess or something if they were travelling through space.

After they loaded everything in the elevator, Mitsuka headed back upstairs while Mikoto and Erina took the five minute ride down to the secret base. Apart from the hum of the engine the two were silent for the whole ride. Without a word passing between them they unloaded their supplies onto the drop ship before heading back up the lift to meet Aika, who quickly dropped off the shelf before taking a ride across town with them for Erina's bed frame.

When she was gone, Mikoto at last turned to Erina. "I'm sorry, I should have told you my plans sooner."

"N-no, it's fine." It didn't feel fine to Erina, but following her ward to space for potentially years seemed like a lot to ask of a mere maid. "Will you stay on with my family?"

"Yes, I will."

And that should have been all that needed to be said. After all their relationship was professional at its root. Mikoto was given room, board and a generous salary by the Shindo family to be an in-house maid, and however close they may have gotten over the years, in the end that was what they were. Employer and employee. If Emu asked Mikoto to do something that she wasn't willing to do, the maid would simply find work elsewhere.

Heck, she was even qualified to become a teacher.

So rather than ask Mikoto to come with her, Erina kept her mouth shut. It wasn't her place to ask for something so selfish, especially when she knew that Mikoto wanted to get married and start a family.

The right thing to do would be to stay silent. "Th-th-there are men on other worlds, you know."

"Ma'am?"

Despite herself the words kept coming. "Y-you don't have to be married here on Earth. There are plenty of human men on world's like Twoearle's and our own, and there's countless worlds out there with infinite potential spouses, but only three and a half billion here, so… So you shouldn't limit yourself."

Mikoto looked at Erina sadly. "My lady-"

"Y-you don't have to call me that. I can just be your friend, Erina, and when you have children they can call me Auntie Erina-"

"Erina!" Mikoto raised her voice and Erina snapped her mouth shut. "Your Mother asked me to keep watch over you."

Erina blinked. "What?"

"I'm staying on with your family because I'll be with you." She smiled faintly. "Your mother doesn't want you to come to any harm, so she offered me quite the sum to make sure you were safe. Of course I told her I didn't need the bonus, but I would of course watch over you."

"Mother did?" Erina gaped.

"Of course she did. However much devotion I have for you, I know it pales in comparison to her love."

Before she realised what she was doing, Erina threw herself forward to wrap both her arms around the maid. Water ran down her cheeks with sheer joy. Mikoto wasn't leaving, and her mother still loved her. Even if they hadn't spoken since the fight, her mother was still looking out for her daughter.

After a moment of surprise Mikoto returned the hug, pulling Erina closer.

* * *

**AN: Edited by Enid**

**And this marks the end of the drama arc. Not long until we'll be back to the action, with space battles, power attacks and brutal punch ups! Friggin' finally.**


	39. 39 Have You Heard the Good News

The morning of the launch, Aika looked out her bedroom window, across the gap between their houses, and over to Souji's balcony for the last time in a long time. The thought that it might be the last time ever was melancholic, but she reminded herself that she wouldn't be alone in her journey. This was it. All that was left for her was to say her final goodbyes and go down that elevator.

She had prepared her outfit ahead of time, a nice summer dress and a pair of shoes. She would swap out of it almost as soon as they left Earth, but she wanted her family to have good memories of her as she left them behind. When they were waiting for her when she came down stairs, even though the sun wasn't even up. Her mother and sister cried. So did Aika for that matter, and she wanted nothing more than to hug them both tightly, but was afraid of losing control of her strength and hurting them. All she could do was carefully and gently wrap her arms around her family one by one, as they begged her to reconsider and stay behind.

The person she was least prepared to say goodbye to was her grandfather. While the rest of the family was speaking to her, he waited in the foyer for her to finish. With their recent fights in mind, she approached him somewhat nervously, while he took his glasses off and peered at her before sighing and looking away.

"Whatever I might think of that boy, if he's the one you desire, well..." He took something out of his pocket and held his hand out to her palm down.

Holding out her own hand, she gasped as at the pair of gold rings he dropped into her palm. "Grandfather, these are yours and grandma's!"

"We're old. We don't need something like this to symbolise our bond anymore. It would please me for you to take it."

"Are you saying… we have your blessings?"

The man scoffed. "Blessings for what? If you don't get a move on he'll be taken by one of those other girls. I don't know what any of you see in him, but that effeminate deviant is bizarrely popular."

"Grandpa…" Aika scowled with irritation.

He huffed and looked at her directly. "As your Sensei, what I'm saying is more like, 'Don't lose.'"

Once again tears warmed Aika's cheek and she clasped her hands together, before bowing low. "Thank you for instructing me."

The man went to say something else, before he stopped himself. He took a moment to clear his throat and put his glasses back on. "Go on then." He stepped aside. "I hope your future students are more obedient than mine."

When she looked back up, Aika's throat had closed over and her eyes were red. She managed to struggle out one last thank you, before walking out the front door and over to the cafe. Her family watched her go the entire way, and she was afraid if she turned back she wouldn't want to leave.

Inside she found Souji and Miharu waiting for her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She answered quickly and stuffed the wedding rings into her pocket and wiped her eyes with the back of her other hand. "Just saying goodbye."

He accepted that without any suspicion. "Twoearle and Isabella are already down there. We're just waiting for Erina and Mikoto. I figured we could all take the lift together."

"They're probably driving across town, now."

Just as he said that the door swung open and Erina stepped through to the sound of a

Small bell. She wasn't alone, and was accompanied by not just Mikoto, but Sato as well.

Erina immediately apologised. "Sorry we're late."

Aika and Souji glanced at Sato, exchanged looks before facing Erina together.

"That's okay." He answered. "Uh, why's she here?"

"Mother wanted to make sure I was safe, so she sent her to come with me. I figured she has a working twintail elemera, and once we get to Locale Twoearle can make us more suits."

Somehow that didn't sit well with Aika, and she was sure that Souji felt the same. Their previous interactions with the maid had made it clear that she was absolutely loyal to Emu and the Shindo clan, and was only serving the Warriors at their behest. The idea of having a loyal servant of the woman who threatened her family made Aika weary. She knew for a fact that they could never fully trust Sato.

The two of them weren't as subtle with their silent conversation as they thought they were, because Erina noticed them and quickly spoke up.

"I know my Mother did something really wrong, and she still hasn't really apologized for it, but she's my mother and I still love her. If I can do something to make her feel a little more at ease about me leaving, then I want to."

One look at Souji's face told Aika that he was convinced, so despite her reluctance she gave a nod even as she sighed.

"Thank you!" Erina smiled brightly and lowered her head once in a grateful bow.

They all climbed into the elevator as a group, and with six people it was a little cramped. Sato in particular was carrying her luggage with her, as she hadn't packed her things during the week.

"Oh!" Erina suddenly brightened up. "Did you guys see the news this morning?"

They both shook their heads.

"On the radio, in the car on our way over." Erina bounced up and down excitedly. "North Korea surrendered!"

"To the South?" Souji asked.

"Yeah!" Erina answered brightly. "They were in an armistice, but the war technically never ended! So that body double we installed as supreme leader must have drafted up and signed a surrender document to deliver to the South."

Souji and gaped in wonder at the implications. "W-What's gonna happen?" He asked aloud.

Aika added, "Surely the top generals and the like won't just accept this."

"I don't know everything, but from what the radio report said, they're afraid of reprisals from the Elemerians after the double cross. In exchange for having no charges laid on them for human rights violations and stuff, they agreed to surrender."

"A lot of very evil men will walk away, free." Aika pointed out bitterly.

"But a lot of innocent people won't have to live under tyranny anymore," Souji pointed out, "And families reunited and more besides!" A wide grin broke over his face and he threw an arm over her shoulder. "We did a really good thing, Aika! I almost can't believe it."

His mood was infectious, and Aika couldn't but smile back at him. Instinctively she went to give a friendly punch to his shoulder, but just stopped herself from doing so when she realised the results might be similar to what happened to the Supreme Leader. Awkwardly lowering her hand, she looked away from Souji. "Even if it all turned out well, I should really train to control myself before I continue at higher gravities."

"Oh yeah, definitely." He nodded quickly.

When they stepped out of the elevator into the secret base, they found Twoearle and Isabella watching a news report on the main screen. On the television was footage of layers of barbed wire from along the border being taken down and rolled up, cut with shots of crying old people hugging and wailing as they were reunited after decades of separation.

"Did you guys see the news!" Isabella asked. "Your North Nekoreans surrendered peacefully."

"I believe you mean Koreans, Madam." Sato corrected.

"Whatever." Isabella narrowed her eyes at the maid. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to accompany the Young Mistress at the request of Lady Shindo."

"You guys okay with that?" Twoearle asked, looking between Aika and Souji.

He just shrugged. "It's one extra Warrior."

"...Well, alright then." Twoearle looked at Sato. "I already used the Elemera from your suit to power the Tail Cruiser, but I'll be able to make you another one when I make another." She turned back to the monitor and turned it off. "Now having left this world a slightly better place than when we found it-"

"And having spread glorious twintails from one corner to another." Souji added.

Twoearle smiled and corrected herself. "Alright, having made the world a _much _better place, it's time to quit while we're winning." She spun on her heel and raised her arm with a finger pointed in the air like she was posing for a statue. "To the ship, everyone!"

"Yeah!" Everyone answered back at once. Even Sato joined in, though her cry sounded more like an obligation than anything else.

As a group they piled onto the dropship, chattering excitedly as they walked down the corridors to the cockpit. The pilot's chair was immediately taken by Twoearle, leaving the sole other seat for whoever took it, which ended up being Souji.

"Alright everyone, we're about to take off." Twoearle explained over her shoulder as she worked the buttons and dials on the dashboard in front of her. "I didn't have time to install extra seating, so just uh- hold tight I guess."

Everyone looked about nervously, while Erina sneakily sidled up to Souji to latch onto his arm. The dire warning actually made Mitsuka look even more excited.

Aika, who had been through this before, just rolled her eyes. "Guys, there's nothing to be scare-"

"Counting down in seven!" Twoearle announced over her. "Six!"

"You don't need to count down-"

"Five!"

"Just flip the switch and stop trying to-"

"Four! Three!"

Aika only huffed and crossed her arms with annoyance as she was ignored.

"Two! One!"

The blue lights of the hangar's space jump catapult flashed all at once and they were all blinded. When their vision returned they found themselves looking out the front window of the vehicle at Earth.

"What was the countdown for?" Aika demanded. "We've all done this before, we know it's effortless."

"Sato, Mitsuka and Mikoto haven't." Twoearle smirked. "You know everyone's first time should be special, right?"

If she hadn't already promised Souji she wouldn't, Aika would have hit her. It was, she realised after a moment, the first time she and Twoearle had bickered in a while. As the ship moved across the Solar System to where the parked Tail Cruiser was waiting, Aika watched her friend's face in the reflection of the canopy window and couldn't help but be glad to see that familiar little smirk Twoearle had whenever she was being mischievous.

It was the first time in a while that Aika had seen it, and she couldn't help but feel relieved that the mad scientist was starting to act more like her regular self. She reached forwards to put a hand on her friend's shoulder and give her a gentle squeeze. Unfortunately, what she had intended as gentle bent the back of the chair.

Twoearle let out a squeal of pain and the entire ship lurched to the side as she accidentally pulled on the steering wheel. Everyone standing except for Aika was thrown to one side, as Twoearle struggled to regain control of the ship.

"Aika, why?" She demanded as she leveled the ship off and put a hand to her injured shoulder. "That's really gonna bruise."

"Look, I was trying to be nice."

"By breaking my shoulder?!"

"No! I didn't mean for it to be that hard. It was meant to be reassuring!" Aika folded her arms, annoyed.

"How about you spare me the hugs until you get your power up under control, you friggin gorilla."

"Now, now." Mitsuka interjected. "Aika, when you hurt a friend by accident you're supposed to say 'I'm sorry.'"

"...I'm sorry, Twoearle."

"Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry, Twoearle, I didn't mean to hurt you." She ground out through grit teeth. "I was trying to be nice."

"And what about everyone else?" Mistuka presses. "They were also hurt."

"... I'm sorry, everyone."

"Hah!" Twoearle snickered. "You got lectured!"

Immediately the mother skewered her with a glare. "And what do you say when a friend apologises?"

"Wha?"

Mitsuka continued to glare at her.

Swallowing nervously, Twoearle smiled at Aika weakly. "I-It's okay, I understand it was an accident."

So excited and impressed at the display of parenting skill, Erina applauded, but stopped with embarrassment when everyone else turned to look at her.

"There. Now we're all friends again."

* * *

He didn't say it aloud, but Souji was gladder than ever he brought his Mother along. They hadn't even got to the ship yet and she was proving herself useful. When they landed and all started to head off to their rooms to get settled in for the coming journey, Mitsuka called out over the group chatter to set a time for breakfast and got some volunteers to help cook and do the dishes afterwards.

Honestly, Twoearle could probably have programmed the robots to do all that sort of thing, but it was a good idea to have a communal meal. For her own business, Twoearle immediately went to the bridge with Isabella to get the ship under way, while his mother, Sato and Mikoto went to get the cooking started.

Everything he planned on bringing was already unpacked in his room, so he figured the most interesting thing to do was to watch from the bridge as the ship reached faster than light speeds. The bridge was laid out like a vessel from classic science fiction, with various stations monitoring different functions all over the room and a captains chair in the center that Twoearle had taken for herself. Surprisingly, it was Isabella in the pilot's chair while the rest of the stations were occupied by robots.

The machines had been modified since he last saw them. Now not only were they wearing different coloured wigs, but they were now sporting silicon breasts attached to their torsos in varying sizes. Some of the rubber pads looked more like tiny nipples, while otherwise were large beyond the point of all reason. A human woman who had breasts that size would probably need a replacement spine before she was thirty.

"What's with the droids?" He asked Twoearle.

"I dunno, they keep modifying themselves." She waved a hand dismissively. "Give us a minute, we're about to set off and Isabella needs to concentrate."

On the screen in front of her, Isabella was running through a complicated series of calculations involving mathematical processes that Souji didn't even faintly recognise. He blinked in surprise, and couldn't help but wonder if the pink haired cat girl was always that smart?

Apparently not, because when Twoearle looked over her shoulder she immediately found several mistakes.

"Crap." Isabella cursed to herself, looking put out and leaning back in her chair so Twoearle could access the screen.

"Ah, don't worry about it. We'll keep at it until you get it."

With just a few keystrokes Twoearle had the calculations fixed and returned to stand before the captain's chair, clicking her fingers at an attending droid as she did. The robot opened a case it was holding in front of it and took out a white hat with a black brim and a gold badge on the front, like any ranking naval officer would wear. The badge bore the image of a silhouetted pair of twintails forming a triangle, with a planet in the background and a sheen of stars around it. With that firmly atop her head the attendant then took out a long, flowing white cap with golden pauldrons that draped around Twoearle's shoulders.

Now that she was properly adorned, Twoearle sat down and leaned back. "Now that we're ready, Flight Officer you may proceed."

Isabella rolled her eyes at the get up, but took the controls and after a moment Souji felt a small change in the ship below him. The viewing window of the ship revealed only the black of space broken up by the tiny little points of stars in the distance. After a while the tiny little points of light began to stretch and elongate, before consuming the entire void into one big blue glow.

"Wow!" Souji gasped. "It looked just like Galaxy Wars."

"It should. That's where I got the animation from."

"...What?"

"We're going faster than the speed of light, idiot." Isabella explained. "Which means we can't actually see light."

"T-then why the window?" Souji gaped.

"That's not a window, that's just a giant screen. We're not even at the front of the ship, we're like at the dead centre."

"B-But the bridge is supposed to be at the front of the ship!"

"That's a really dumb idea." Isabella scoffed. "If it's at the front, then when the Elemerians shoot at us, the most important part of the ship is in the most vulnerable place."

"...You have no sense of romance." Souji muttered, before stalking off the bridge in disgust.

* * *

**AN: With that, at last, the Warriors are on their way and ready to enter the final arc. Finally we'll get back to some bloody action. Enough of this emotion junk.**

**Shout out to my editor, Enid.**


	40. 40 Interlude Part 1

For the longest time, Aisana would have been completely alone if not for the company of Meganeptune Mk 1. In her entire time with Ultimagil she never saw or spoke to another human being before coming to Earth at all. The Gildies were all either her subordinates looking to overthrow her, superiors looking to get rid of her, or of the same rank looking to surpass her.

Now that she was among her fellow humans again, Aisana had almost no idea at all what to do, especially with the way they all looked and acted like they were part of a high school clique. Even back in her days of schooling, Aisana hadn't been a very popular child, preferring to read in the corner rather than being the centre of attention.

Now though, she had the distinct impression she was the Antiwarriors newest toy, and they were all eager to play with her.

"Duck face." Liz commanded her.

Aisana hurried to obey, and the two of them pressed their cheeks together while the girl took a selfie.

"Oh, it's a good one." Liz smiled, before posting it to the fleet's social media account. It wasn't long until a handful of gildies whose tastes lined up with the image posted fawning comments about their twintails, and she sat back with a satisfied smirk on her face.

The other Antiwarriors were scattered around the room, lounging as they read magazines and texted on their phones. Mostly they just texted each other despite all being in the same room, the only other choice in the fleet being various gildies who were all kind of gross and creepy. That was fine, but what Aisana wanted to know in particular was why they were in her room? She got that they were bored, but did they have to do that here?

Mega Neptune Mk 2 clomped into the room, her robotic feet loud against the deck of the ship even when it was softly carpeted. "I brought some snacks for your friends, Aisana!" She chirped.

"Oh, thanks Meganee!" The short brunette, Maria stood up to collect the tray from the robot's hands and moved to the table. "Everyone, say thank you."

"Thanks, Meganee." The other girls all intoned.

"You girls just let me know if you need anything." The robot laughed, her face plate blushing red as she stomped out of the room.

The moment the door shut, Maria turned to face everyone else. She was the shortest of the girls, but easily the loudest, always with the most to say. Her hair was done up in two short tails to either side of her head. She was probably the cutest of the Antiwarriors. "Did you see what she was wearing?!"

"I know, right?"

"So laaaaame."

"Who even designed that stupid thing?"

_I did._ Was what Aisana was too afraid to say, and didn't. In the long months since the destruction of Locale, Mega Neptune had been her only friend. Despite this, Aisana swallowed the hurt she felt and laughed right along with the others.

Maria half smiled at Aisana. "She's like, so embarrassing, right?"

"Y-yeah." Aisana quickly agreed. It seemed like the thing to do. Wasn't this what most groups of female friends had been like in middle school? Mean gossip was just in the name of good fun.

"You should get rid of her." Another girl suggested.

"I would diiiiiie if anyone knew I owned that."

"I know, right?" All the girls laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world until they all stopped laughing one by one and looked at Aisana.

With the whole room staring at her, all she could do was force a laugh out, like it was a joke.

"So?" Maria demanded.

All of them were staring straight at Aisana's face. "W-what?"

"Are you going to get rid of her?"

"I-I-I mean, I need someone to cook and clean and stuff." Aisana quickly explained.

There was an exchange of looks around the room, as the girls assessed the value of that explanation.

"Couldn't a Gildy do that?" Liz pointed out. In direct contrast to Maria, Liz was tall enough to play volleyball and unusually curvaceous for a girl her age and obviously physically fit. Her breasts were as big as Aisana remembered Twoearle's being, and her twintails were two large permed poofy things that added to her already large silhouette. Despite all this, she wasn't the antiwarrior who scared Aisana the most.

"These taste good." A particular antiwarrior answered, reaching past Aisana's shoulder and dipping one of the rice crackers into the French onion before gracefully sliding it between her lips. "A friggin' gildy couldn't make this."

"Yeah." Liz instantly changed her mind. "These are nice."

"Yeah, totes." Maria chimed in.

Aisana breathed a small sigh of relief as the other girls went back to their things, and the Antiwarrior who had spoken went back to lying down on the bed.

Aisana's bed.

Yamato didn't speak very often, but she was the final word on what the Antiwarriors did. So far Aisana had not been able to figure out why, but when she looked into the depths of those coal black eyes, she became afraid very suddenly that the Void was now staring back at her. Easily the most beautiful of all the Antiwarriors, Yamato had skin like porcelain, and a delicate grace to her movements that stood in stark contrast to the others. Her straight black hair was parted down the middle as if by a knife, only to wash forward over her shoulders like twin waves of a black ocean. Despite using no scrunchies, barrettes, or hair ties that could be seen, Aisana had never witnessed the girl's twintails in anything less than perfect order.

That black gaze turned towards Aisana, and a chill ran down her spine. "Tell me of these… _Warriors._"

"Uh… the ones on Earth?"

Maria answered for her. "Duh."

"Be detailed." Liz added and flipped open her smartphone case. Her fingers flew across the touchscreen and when Aisana glanced at what she was doing, she saw the girl was typing down everything they were saying.

"Uh, w-what do you want to know?"

"How many of them are there?"

"What are their colours?"

"Do they have any secondary Elemera?"

All across the room the seven different Antiwarriors chimed in with all sorts of questions, and Aisana hurried to answer them as best as she could.

"Which one's the strongest?"

"Who's the leader?"

Then Yamato spoke and the room fell silent. "Where are they getting the extra suits?"

Suddenly Aisana's mouth felt dry, and she swallowed nervously. "They're being manufactured by a woman named Twoearle."

Immediately Maria chimed in. "She has a profile on the database. Says here she was the Blue Warrior of Locale before it was harvested. Escaped by hijacking a drop ship.

"Is she the current Tailblue?" Liz demanded.

All eyes turned back to Aisana.

"I-I-I don't know." The lie escaped her lips before she even realised it was spoken. Dimly she realised that the idea of these people putting their hands on her former lover was frightening in a way Aisana had never experienced before. "She deployed Imagine Chaf."

Something about her answer didn't satisfy the group, and they all exchanged looks before turning back to Yamato.

"..."

Under that withering gaze, Aisana felt the back of her neck prickle. "I-I don't think the current Tail Blue is her. They look nothing alike, but Twoearle could have easily modified the suits to alter her appearance."

"..."

Those pitch dark eyes remained focussed on her, and Aisana suddenly realised what was on the line. If she didn't satisfy them they would drain her elements and toss away her empty husk like just any other person. "There was also a woman with the other three Warriors. She wore a helmet, but she had the same body shape as Twoearle. Th-that could just be the imagine chaf, though."

"..." For a long, cold minute Aisana thought she had failed and was on the brink of transformation, but then Yamato looked towards Maria. "Do we have a sample?"

"No, she got away before that could be collected."

A sigh of relief escaped Aisana, and she put a hand to her chest to try and calm her pounding heart.

"Do we have a sample of Aisana?" Yamato asked.

Maria shook her head.

Yamato looked towards Liz, who stood up and grabbed her makeup bag, before turning and approaching Aisana.

Not sure what was happening, Aisana shrunk back nervously. "W-What Do you mean by 'sample'?

"This." Liz answered, ominously pulling on a pair of rubber gloves. Roughly, she reached out and grabbed Aisana by the forearm with a large hand, turning it over so her wrist pointed up. With her other hand, she quickly jabbed something sharp into the exposed flesh, a needle of some kind extended from the barrel of a device that looked a bit like a gun, but with an empty clear glass capsule at the back that quickly turned red as it filled with blood.

It stung a fair bit, and Aisana winced. "What's that for?"

None of them answered her, even as Liz took the blood sample away and dropped it into a cooler.

"G-Guys?"

The only response she got was a glance from Yamato. There couldn't have been any clearer warning to stop asking more.

"We need to construct a profile on the different Warriors." Liz said to the group and there were hums of consensus. "All the idiot officers of the Earth invasion are now dead so we can't get anything from them."

"What about Catyu?" Another asked.

That word was completely unfamiliar to Aisana, but everyone else in the room acted like they knew exactly what it meant.

"The invasion force there sent one final dispatch about encountering the Warriors from Earth and hasn't been heard from since." Maria answered. "Wrecked like losers, I bet."

"And the Catyu Warrior?"

"Tailpink. At last check she was still active."

Liz pursed her lips. "So that's four Warriors we have to kill, and none of them we have a good profile for."

"At least we still outnumber them." Someone pointed out. "With Ai-tan here, there's eight of us, so that's a two to one advantage."

Yamato's soft voice cut across the room and everyone looked towards her. "The Warriors are secondary. Twoearle is our real concern."

Wait, what? "I don't understand." Aisana spoke up, then shrunk back when all eyes turned towards her. "W-why is Twoearle more important than the others?"

Maria answered. "...The suits. Four Warriors aren't much of a threat to Ultimagil, but as long as she's alive they can make more."

"R-right." That did make sense, but… "D-Do we have to kill her?"

"Yeah, def." Liz snorted. "Even if we capture her, there's always going to be the risk that she'll escape."

"Twoearle dies." Yamato finished. "Problem?"

Unable to hold her gaze, Aisana looked away. "S-sorry, I've just never killed a human before."

With glacial slowness, a cruel smile spread over Yamato's face. "Then would you like the honours?"

"What?" Aisana bolted up, the blood draining from her face.

"Yeah, pop that cherry." Maria chipped in.

"It's kinda gross the first time, but it feels good after that!"

"Get 'em girl!"

Someone wolf whistled.

"Then it's settled." Yamato decided, laying back on the bed.

"Congratz!" Liz laughed and threw her arm around Aisana's neck and pulled her closer. "You're so lucky."

Somehow it didn't feel that way.

* * *

In the days since the meeting, things hadn't gone much better for Aisana. As they slowly closed in on Earth, she felt her nervous anticipation only growing. There was no way she could kill Twoearle!

In retrospect their relationship was clearly one sided and predatory, but whenever she thought of those white locks and that deep cleavage, Aisana's heart still fluttered. Why had they chosen her for it? What was Yamato thinking?

Not to mention that sample of her DNA they took. Aisana had no idea what to make of that.

She would have loved to talk about it with Mega Neptune, but now that was all but impossible. Since the meeting, not once had Aisana been alone. Every night at least one of the girls would declare they were having a sleepover, and would either sleep in Aisana's room or drag her to theirs. During the day one of the girls would always accompany her, even when she went to the bathroom, saying something like, "Oh, I'll come with!" In an excited tone.

Aisana tried to object, but then Liz intervened, warning, "Like, don't be lame or, you know, do." Her eyes flashed dangerously and she loomed over the much smaller girl. "It's your call."

Since then, Aisana hadn't tried to escape again even once.

Among the girls the badmouthing was constant. The gildies in the fleet, Mega Neptune, Admiral Fenryrgildy, even other members of the group when they weren't around.

"Liz is such a gorilla, you know?" Maria gossiped, and Aisana just smiled and nodded. "She has to be like, part gildy or something."

On another occasion, Liz confided, "They're all such stupid bimbos. Without me and Yama to tell Maria which hole is which she'd probably sit on her food, I swear to god."

Not once did Aisana hear anything bad said about the black haired beauty.

Their daily schedule was mostly organised by Liz with Yamato's approval. Two hours a day were spent in training, one was spent in strategy meetings, and the rest was mostly just lazing about for the girls.

Aisana did learn some things she didn't previously know about. First and foremost was how Elemerians were born.

In a darkened hanger bay, she looked through a glass window as a collection of Ultiroids down below jabbered excitedly in anticipation of what was coming. From the back of the room, some kind of mammal themed gildy emerged, an Elemera orb in his hands. It was a huge breasts type, one of the most common.

"Whoever wins gets this. Now fight!"

Without any further encouragement required, the Ultiroids hurled themselves upon each other in a hissing, kicking, clawing mob.

There was something vaguely pathetic and gross about the creatures at the best of times, but as they tore into each other, Aisana couldn't help but be reminded of starving dogs turning on each other for a meal. When there was finally just one battered and weary Ultiroid left, he received the orb into his chest and was swallowed by a bright light. When it faded, a spotted Minotaur like Elemerian stood there.

"Cowgildy, I am Cowgildy!" He declared.

The vast majority of the fleet's Elemera Orbs were consumed by the existing Elemerians for sustenance. Aside from that one time, Aisana didn't see a new gildy being birthed again.

"Yeah, they eat that stuff." Maria explained, munching on one of Mega Neptune's cookies. "That's why we're not going straight to Earth."

This was news to Aisana. "Then.. where are we going?"

"We're gonna resupply at a world they already harvested, before heading there. I think it's called Locale?"

"What?!" Aisana blurted out at the name of her old home.

"Well, it's not like they always move the orbs of billions of humans at once, so they store them on the planet for a convoy like us to come pick up. That's why we have so many cargo ships with us. We're gonna take all of Earth's and Catyu's orbs back to the empire with us as well." She eyed Aisana suspiciously. "What's got you upset? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing." She quickly sat back down. "Locale is just my old home."

"Hm?" Maria looked confused, before a look of realisation crossed her features. "Oh, right. I keep forgetting you were like, born."

Now it was Aisana's turn to be confused. "What do you mean by-"

She was interrupted by the chime of an intercom.

"This is your Captain speaking. Could all Antiwarriors please report to the ops room. I repeat, all Antiwarriors to the Ops room."

Maria stuffed the rest of the cookies into her mouth and stood up. "Hum om!" She ordered, and hurried away.

Aisana followed her all the way up to the top deck where the room was and found all the other Antiwarriors present and waiting for them. They were all seated, and watching a projector hologram that Liz stood in front of with a laser pointer. In the darkest corner of the room, Aisana spied Yamato, watching over the proceedings.

When they were all seated, Liz immediately began. "We're now just a few hours out from Locale, close enough to detect some of what's going on in the system. It seems like someone beat us here."

"The Earth Warriors?" Maria asked.

"No, we don't think so." Liz answered. The image in the hologram changed to display a ship with an image painted on the side of a delicate looking woman wearing a silver and diamond tiara. "We wanted more information on the Earth Warriors, and it looks like we're getting it." She smirked. "The deserter Orchidmantisguildy has decided to steal the storage orbs from Locale."


	41. 41 Interlude Part 2

In a lot of ways Locale looked almost exactly the same as Aisana remembered it. It was vastly more advanced technologically than Earth or any of the other nearby inhabited universes, and it showed with flying cars and towering megatropolises inhabited by hundreds of millions of people. The streets were clean and well managed by armies of servile droids, everyone had access to medicine and their basic needs were met. Structurally almost nothing had changed.

What was different was that the billboards were empty. The great holographic displays that used to feature attractive women and rugged actions stars now only played dull news stories about market trends. The parks were no longer filled with people relaxing or exercising, but were completely empty but for the people that maintained them as a job.

There was even a presidential election going on this year, but you could barely tell with the way the two candidates talked about the job like they didn't particularly want it and would really rather the other guy deal with the hassle. Wives and husbands remained married, but without so much as an argument or a kiss on the cheek went about their lives like two strangers living under the same roof. Schools were filled with children who barely associated with each other, mostly just doing the bare minimum of school work and waiting for the day to end.

This was what a world without Elemera looked like. On the surface everything looked the same, but even Aisana who had never been welcome here, never loved the place at all couldn't help but feel… melancholy as she watched this boring world. Not even an alien invasion could startle these people out of their apathy.

Literally.

Orchidmantisguildy had parked his spaceship in the middle of the city's busiest street, and so all the cars had simply detoured around it and found another way to get to work. During the day, the few Ultiroids the commander had left would go out and round up some men to work until the sun set. The slaves were made to package as much of the world's plundered Elemera Orbs as they could into cardboard boxes, and bring them to the enormous storage of Orchidmantisguildy's ship before they were sent home. The passionless zombies worked without complaint, probably deciding it was safer to do as they were told then to try to fight.

Aisana and the other Antiwarriors watched this happen like clockwork for three days while Yamato and Liz decided on a plan. For some reason the slaves weren't using forklifts or carts, moving all the boxes by hand, so it was taking a while for the job to be finished. In the meantime the girls had set up in a building down the road and occupied its upper floors for a look out. The locals who had been working there had left without complaint after Maria had cut a table in half with some kind of blade whip.

The ship might have been able to detect the antiwarriors if it's sensors were in orbit, but it was parked in a maze of steel and glass and unlikely to notice them. Even if it was, the Antiwarrior's had their imagine chaf active just in case the ship might pick something up, and would hopefully instead misidentify them as having no Elemera at all, either.

Aisana usually went to Liz when she didn't know something. The tall blonde wasn't as easily distracted as Maria, or as scary as Yamada, while still being in the loop regarding whatever was going on with planning. "Uh, excuse me."

"Sup?"

"I'm just wondering what we're waiting for."

"Confirmation." She answered. "We know Orchidmantisguildy is stealing our Elemera, we just don't know what for."

"Oh. But then couldn't we just interrogate him after we capture him?"

"People are liars." For some reason Yamato answered. How she overheard their conversation from across the room and amid the chatter of the other Antiwarriors, Aisana didn't know, but her soft voice cut through the noise like it was whispered straight into Aisana's ear.

It took a long time for Yamato to get her answer, during which the loading bay was eventually filled completely. The Ultiroids stopped going out in the morning to collect work crews, and the ship remained, waiting for something. The days went by, the girls grew increasingly bored and restless, while Yamato kept up her intense scrutiny. Even Liz, who was typically Yamato's right hand in everything, showed signs of discomfort, becoming snappish and frustrated quickly while enforcing discipline.

Despite all this, none of the girls tried to sneak away, or argue with their leader. All it took was one dark look from Yamato and any amount of rebellion was quashed instantly. For all that not much was happening, Aisana found herself growing more and more nervous of what _might_ happen.

Usually Maria was quite a gossip, and so Aisana thought if there was anyone to ask about what was going on, she'd be the one, but even after cornering her in the bathroom there were no useful answers.

"Just… ask _her_ if you have to. I'm not sticking my neck out." Was all the explanation she got.

Finally, on the thirty fifth day of their stakeout, there was a click as Yamato's communicator turned on.

From over the comms, Fenryrgildy's voice said, "Deep space scouts have detected an incoming ship. They'll be here in approximately twenty days. Bring him in."

There was a pause as everyone in the room digested their orders, and even Yamato looked annoyed. All she answered with was, "Copy."

Suddenly the girls began packing everything up, all their recording equipment, bedding, clothes and toiletries.

"I don't understand, what's going on?"

Maria rolled her eyes at Aisana. "We got our confirmations already, and we didn't even need to do the stakeout. This was all just b_iiii_g waste of time."

Aisana could understand that much, but she still couldn't figure out the point of all this. When she opened her mouth to ask more questions, Maria had already moved on. As a group they headed out of the building, and from the front Liz barked out orders for everyone to transform.

This wasn't the first time Aisana had seen their transformations, but it was the first time she'd seen Yamato's. With only so many colours in the world, it was inevitable that there were some double ups. The seven other antiwarriors ran the gamut, with red, blue, brown, orange, pink and purple tailsuits, but by sheer coincidence there were now two of them in black colours.

"Uh, do I need to change my call sign?" Dark Grasper asked.

No one bothered to answer. As a group they walked straight up to the landed dropship without hesitation. As far as plans of attack went, it seemed incredibly simple. Dark Grasper kept glancing at the others, trying to find out if this was normal. None of them acted as though it were strange.

Eventually they came within sight of the alien ship, rounding a corner to see the park less than a hundred meters away from it.

Immediately there was a response as the ship lit up, and for a second Dark Grasper thought it was going to take off when it suddenly jerked and was tossed into the air by some unseen force. The entire ship was jolted up and tipped long ways over its end before crashing top down into the ground. Grasper flinched at the sound of an enormous bang, and a dust cloud was thrown up as half the park was crushed.

"W-What was that?!" Grasper gasped.

None of the other Antiwarriors answered her. The group moved in formation towards the downed ship, and again Grasper flinched as something unseen pulled the ship up into the air and tore it in half with the sound of shrieking metal. From inside the ship a dozen shrieking Ultiroids poured out, along with all the boxes of stolen orbs. Like a banana peeling itself, the massive ship was torn up piece by piece as layer after layer of it was ripped off and tossed aside until the entire ship was nothing but a pile of oversized scrap. The ship's crew had all fallen out in the middle of the carnage and were staring at the antiwarriors in complete bewilderment.

"Ultiroids!" One of the bigger Elemerians wearing a pink cravat of all things yelled. "Attack!"

Before the diminutive aliens could take even one step they were pulled into the air by the same force, and shrieked as their rubbery forms were compressed. Dark Grasper could only gape as the aliens died horribly, pressed down on all sides by some force crushing them almost to the size of a basketball before they exploded. Even the explosions themselves seemed unable to escape whatever invisible force was pressuring them from all sides.

When the last muffled explosion disappeared, all that was left was one terrified looking cockroach Elemerian, and their target, Orchidmantisguildy.

"What is this?" He demanded, standing up.

"What the hell was that?" Grasper whispered into the ear of the nearest Antiwarrior, a girl in purple.

"That's why you don't make her upset." She answered through the side of her mouth and glanced over to their leader.

"She's doing that?!" Grasper boggled until the Black shot her a dark glare and she instantly shut up.

Orchidmantisguildy dusted off his cravat, and glared at his captor. "Antiwarriors? Mere slaves like you _dare_ to attack my ship! When Ultimategildy hears of this, he will-" The pink cravat was suddenly ripped from his neck and shredded in the air before him.

"The Emperor doesn't _care_ about what happens to a _failed_ little gildy like you." Black cut across him. "If you didn't know something that we're interested in, we wouldn't even bother bringing you in alive."

At that Cockroachgildy perked up. "Alive? Yes, I surrender!" He put his hands in front of him like he was waiting to be handcuffed. "Please, I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"

She eyed him up for a moment. "It doesn't really matter I suppose. The first one who talks gets to li-"

"I stashed it on this world's moon." Orchidmantisguildy blurted out.

"What?!" Cockroachgildy gaped. "She didn't even finish, that's cheating!" He looked towards her, then the rest of the antiwarriors. "He cheated, right? It doesn't count!"

Cold black eyes only gazed back at him with disinterest.

"No! That's not fair!" He backed away, failing to notice that behind him pieces of scrap from the ship were being crushed into the shape of a metal spike by psychic energy. "I would have told you, I swear! I can even lead you th-"

With a sound like a whip crack, the metal pike smashed into his back at a speed that not even the antiwarriors could see, and the helpless Elemerian was impaled into the ground. He twitched once, twice, then was destroyed in an explosion. The force of the shockwave blew at the Antiwarrior's hair, but Black's didn't even sway. Her perfect twintails still hung forward over her shoulders, looking as pristine now as they ever had. Her gaze turned back to Orchidmantisguildy, the last survivor of the Catyu invasion.

"Take us to _it_."

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

'It' wasn't hard to find, though Aisana still wasn't sure what they were looking for. Following Orchidmantisguildy's directions they were easily able to find the moon crater he'd used as a hiding spot. Aisana waited on board the ship while Liz transformed and headed outside with a shovel to dig it up. Very soon, the tall girl returned with what looked like a high tech treasure chest, complete with a skull and crossbones that had glowing eyes and a digital interface in its eyes to type the password.

Orchidmantisguildy tapped in the correct key order, and the lid opened with a hiss of sealed air. The other girls crowded around the chest with murmurs of interest, while Aisana tried to look past them to see what kind of buried treasure had been discovered.

"Jackpot!" Liz announced, reaching inside and pulled out… a ziplock baggie full of fingernails?

Confused, Aisana squinted at the growing pile of garbage that the Antiwarriors were excitedly spilling onto the deck of the ship. Used tissues, bottles with what looked like urine samples inside, bundles of hair? Who on Earth would want, let alone _kill_, for this garbage? For some reason what looked like a pair of sweaty old gym socks drew the most interest.

"Wow, look at all this." Maria clapped her hands and jumped up and down excitedly. "How many girls are these?"

"Four." Orchidmantisguildy answered. "Catyu Pink, Earth Blue, Earh Red and Earth Yellow."

The corner's of Yamato's mouth twitched downwards with ever so faint disappointment. "Pack it all up."

"What?" Maria looked up and asked, voice heavy with disappointment. "Why?"

Immediately the other girls fell silent. Every one of them looked to Maria with open horror on their faces.

In a quiet, almost whisper of a voice, Yamato murmured, "Did you just question me?" It wasn't a question.

The blood drained from Maria's face and she immediately stammered, "N-no-no, no I just-" Suddenly her twintails were seized by psychic power, and she was pulled fully into the air by her own hair. The arm which her bracer was on jerked towards the side, and twisted almost to the point of breaking. In less than a second the bracer had been pried loose from her wrist and was floating in the air next to Yamato. Kicking and shrieking with pain, the hapless Maria was suddenly thrown headfirst into the airlock. The doors slammed shut in her face.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, please! I didn't mean it!" She cried, her face pressed up against the glass. "Please don't kill me, I'll be good, I swear!"

Aisana watched in horror as Yamato glided over to the airlock and looked out at her supposed team mate. "Everyone says they're sorry before the end, Maria. How do I know you mean it?"

"I mean it! Please, I'll never talk back again." Tears ran down her face and she sobbed. "I'll bne a good girl! Please, I'll never do it again, please."

"That's what you said last time." Yamato replied, sceptically. "What do you think, girls? Can I trust her this time?"

None of them answered her, all looking away, terrified.

"Doesn't seem like they can vouch for you." Yamato smirked at Maria. "Sorry." She murmured as she slowly, deliberately reached for the airlock controls with her hand.

"Wait!" Aisana blurted out, stepping forward. She cringed when those murderous eyes turned towards her. "M-Maria didn't mean to be rude." She said in a small voice. "I'm sure she was just excited."

There was a long silence for a moment as Yamato considered her for a long moment. "Is that so? Are you sure of that?"

"Yes!" Aisana answered.

"Really?"

"I'm sure of it. Right?" Aisana looked to the airlock and Maria nodded furiously. "See?"

"So I can trust you, then?" Yamato asked.

"Yes!"

"You would never _lie_ to me about anything, would you? Or maybe _leave_ _something_ out?"

Aisana's stomach plummeted, as she remembered her interrogation from when they first met, and the way Yamato had stared at her when she tried to hide her relationship with Earth's Twintail Warriors. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "I… I did leave something out."

Yamato merely waited for her to continue.

"I… I went to the same university as Twoearle, the former Tailblue. We were both child prodigies. And we were lovers. When we were younger. She had a lolicon attribute, so when we got older she lost interest in me." Aisana hesitated before continuing. "That's it. That's what I was hiding. I was afraid if you thought I was connected to the Earth Warriors that you wouldn't trust me."

The entire bridge fell silent, waiting for judgement.

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"That's what you were hiding?" Disbelief filled Yamato's voice.

"... I mean, w-what did you think I was hiding?"

Those black eyes regarded her for a long moment, before Yamato turned away with disgust and walked straight off the bridge. The airlock door opened with a hiss, and Maria tumbled back into the ship. She shivered on the ground and hugged herself, sobbing.

A large hand grabbed Aisana's shoulder and she spun to find Liz was now standing behind her. "What was that about?"

"Ultimategildy himself wants to know how four seperate invasion forces failed to harvest a backwater like Earth. How did they get three Tailsuits when they should only have one? When Yamato noticed you lying during the debriefing, she hoped you were part of some kind of conspiracy so she could get answers for the Emperor."

"Oh, my god." Aisana turned pale. "So I was nearly-"

"Yeah. You were very nearly." Very nearly _what_ wasn't said. Liz snorted and crouched down next to her crying friend. "Go on, get up. Your mascara's running. Go take a shower if you have to."

Still sobbing, Maria staggered to her feet and ran into the hall to find a bathroom.

Liz stood back up to her full height. "We were staking out Orchidmantisguildy because we were hoping you'd try and contact him somehow, and we could connect you two to a larger network. After all, he somehow managed to bungle the invasion of Catyu, which was literally right next door to Earth. Once might be an accident, twice could still be chance, but four tailsuits going rogue right next door to each other? Smells fishy."

That… all made sense to Aisana, but there was one lingering question on her mind. "Then… What's with the box of finger nails and snot?"

"Those are genetic samples. Valuable ones, too. These are currency in the heart of Ultimagil."

"...Why?" Aisana boggled at the idea. "That's disgusting."

"Elemerians eat Elemera to survive. By cloning humans with really strong attributes they hope they can reseed worlds with genetics more likely to produce desirable Elemera, though twintail attribute is more of a developmental thing and that doesn't usually work very well. But there are definitely other prized attributes with a more direct genetic component like Cow Tits and Flat Chest. The small breast loving faction will pay an incredible amount for clones of someone like Earth's Tailblue in particular."

Aisana turned her head to look at the apparent treasure box. "So those…?"

"We can use them to buy all sorts of stuff, as long as Fenryrgildy doesn't confiscate them."

Aisana's mind flashed back to something else that happened during that interview. "So when you took my blood it was so you could sell it?"

"No." Liz shook her head. "Apart from your rather basic twintail attribute which probably won't be transferable, all your genetics have is myopia."

Harsh, but true. "Then why...?"

"That was a sample for the clone farms." Liz answered, patting her on the shoulder. "We definitely want another Anti-warrior, and if you weren't suitable, we'd make as many clones of you as we needed to until we got one."

"Oh my god."

"So remember, never talk back to Yamato. The only reason you're here is because she wants another anti-warrior on hand right _now_ to fight the Earth Warriors. If you piss her off, you'll be kept in helpless suspension, harvested all day everyday for your useful DNA until the day you die."

A jolt of fear shot down Aisana's spine at the warning. "So she was really going to kill Maria?"

Liz answered with a firm nod. "She's like the third Maria I've known."

That was… completely horrifying. "...Are you _all_ clones?"

"Oh, we didn't really introduce ourselves properly did we?" Liz laughed like she only just remembered something. "I'm Liz 003." She put her hand out for a handshake. "Nice to meet you, Aisana 001."


	42. 42 Orb Theory

It was a fact that everyone on board the Tailcruiser knew and tried not to think about too much that Twoearle had cameras everywhere. Obviously Aika-senpai had done everything she could to convince Twoearle into revealing her hidden camera locations, but without the threat of violence there was only so much you could do to convince a crazy person of anything.

There was almost no point in using the bed rooms at all for what little privacy they actually offered, but despite that Isabella still went to them to change back into her casual clothes. The alternative was stripping in the lab with Twoearle standing right there. At least alone in her room she could have the vague impression of being unobserved.

As she stripped, she paused to check herself out in the mirror. The two months of training under Aika had stripped most of what little baby fat there was off her frame. She hadn't quite developed washboard abs like her Senpai's, but it was a flat, firm stomach that would look great in a bikini. Whenever they stopped off at a beach world somewhere or something, Isabella would have plenty to show off. Her breasts were also getting a little big, too. They certainly weren't at Twoearle's level, but no girl in their right mind would complain about a c-cup, would they? Certainly they were larger than those of at least one person aboard the Tailcruiser.

Immediately the thought made her feel guilty, and she pulled her shirt back on. Her Senpai had a lovely chest! Anyone who couldn't see that was just an idiot harem protagonist who took his blessings for granted. God, Souji is just the worst!

Isabella could only scowl as she zipped up her skirt with a few angry tugs. Now dressed, she left her bedroom and walked barefoot across the deck to take the elevator to the lab.

Almost no one aboard bothered wearing shoes these days, except Erina's two maids who insisted on maintaining standards. Under Mikoto and Sato's direction, the droid army did an excellent job keeping the place clean, even if it was a little disturbing that some of the faceless mannequins were wearing maid outfits now as well.

As she waited for her elevator to reach its destination, two of the robots stepped in carrying bags of flour. From the looks of the chef hats and aprons they were wearing, the two were probably on their way to the kitchens where Souji's mother was in charge. They both stared at Isabella with open fascination and she tried to ignore them as the apertures in their eyes shrunk and grew as they locked onto different parts of her.

Like all the other droids on the ship, these ones had modified themselves to look more feminine. One of them had scratched a hair like pattern into its head, and even managed to find a way to bend its chest and hips into a more womanly shape, with obvious damage done to the metal in the process from the way it warped and had sharp ridges jutting out in places. The other one had painted it's fingers to look like nails, and smeared a grotesque set of over sized red lips onto its face in place of a mouth.

Isabella shuddered slightly as they got off the lift and headed to the kitchen. Those things were getting creepy.

When she stepped into the lab she found Twoearle sitting at her computer.

"We need to do something about the droids."

"Why, did they do something?"

Isabella admitted with a scowl. "No, but why do they keep modifying themselves?"

"I'm not sure." Twoearle admitted. "But I can't see how it really matters. As long as they do their jobs, I don't see any harm in playing dress up."

"They're robots! They're not supposed to want to play dress up."

"We coded those together, Isabella, and you're free to do a diagnostic program on any one of them at any time. Hell, format them if you have to! You know as well as I do that nothing in their programming would dictate that they act like that."

"Then why are they doing it?" Isabella grumbled, taking a chair.

"Maybe some kind of bleed over from being so close to all our concentrated elemera?" Twoearl speculated, but didn't even bother turning around as she continued to read data on her computer.

The laboratory they had in the ship was built to be almost the exact same as the one on Earth or Catyu. It was a little more compact to fit into the Tailcruiser better, but it had all the same features as the last one, including the glass case where all the tailsuits were being analysed by a grid of blue lasers.

"Anyway, let's try to focus on one scientific mystery at a time." Twoearle finally spun around in her chair to face her friend. "Speaking of which, I think I've got a working hypothesis going regarding the other glitches we're experiencing."

"Oh." Isabella blinked. "Was that what you were scanning me for earlier?"

"Yeah, uh... I'm not sure how to tell you..."

"What?"

Twoarle sighed and leaned back in her chair. "There's no easy way to say this." She had an expression of sympathy on her face as she reached out and put a hand on Isabella's shoulder. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Isabella just raised an eyebrow. "What, am I glitching with super cancer or something?"

"No, it's much worse than that. I'm afraid that you are… more or less, a relatively mentally stable and well adjusted young adult."

"...That sounds like a good thing?"

"I know, I know, this may come as a shock. I mean that certainly wasn't true when we met you! Lord knows those daddy issues were intense, but after a near death experience to put things into perspective and making some sincere friends along the way, you were able to resolve things with him in a way that left you more or less okay? If I had known then what I know now I would have tried to stop you from having an honest conversation with your father, but unfortunately I was just too late to detect it."

"... I'm not following." Isabella admitted.

"The glitches we're experiencing seem to be a product of unfulfilled needs, or maybe just intense desires. Because you're relatively psychologically healthy and more or less fulfilled emotionally it seems you haven't developed any extraneous side effects from being directly connected to your deepest desires."

It took a moment for Isabella to catch up to what Twoearle was implying. "So you're saying… the others are crazy?"

"Eh." Twoearle gave a so-so with her hand. "It's more like I'm saying you're not quite crazy enough, and we're not quite sane enough."

"But Senpai's not crazy!"

Twoearle raised an eyebrow at that, before picking up a remote and turning towards a monitor that was currently displaying a screensaver of children playing in a nursery. The loop was replaced by an image of Aika alone in the training room, panting heavily as she ran on a treadmill with massive weights strapped to her back, arms and legs.

"Do you have any idea what kind of gravity she's currently under?" Twoearle asked. "Better question, do you have any idea how long she's been under it?"

"Uh, a lot I suppose, and probably a few hours now?"

"Fifty three times Earth, and six hours." Twoearle shook her head. "How many hours do you train with her a day?"

"Usually two." Isabella answered.

"And not under high gravity either." Twoearle smirked. "So, in addition to the time she spends training you, Aika is in that room for usually nine or ten hours, every day except cheat day… Are you seriously trying to tell me that this is not a dangerous obsession?"

Isabella bit her lip at what was a fair point. "What about the others?"

"Fair question."

Twoearle changed the screen to show footage of Souji sitting at his desk in front of a sheet of paper and absolutely sweating bullets. His leg was tapping and he was chewing on his pen, staring at the sheet in front of him with a pained look on his face.

"... I don't get it, what am I looking at?"

"That's a little questionnaire I sent up to him a few nights ago. It took him four hours to complete and he didn't get a wink of sleep that night."

"What were the questions?"

"Question one: If you had to choose between saving a puppy or watching a little girl's twintails get shorn off, which would you choose?"

Isabella frowned at that. "Well, I mean, you could seriously argue that the trauma inflicted on a little girl might be more important than a dog…"

"Question two: If you had to choose between everyone on Earth losing interest in twintails or being blinded in both eyes, which would you choose?"

"...I suppose being blinded to save something you love could be seen as heroic?"

"Question three: If you had to choose between saving a stranger's twintails or a different stranger's life, which would you choose? This one took him an hour."

"...There's literally no moral equivalence between those two."

"And yet he really struggled with it." Twoearle shook her head ruefully. "My favourite one was Question six: If you had to choose between saving Aika's life or her twintails, which would you choose?"

"What was his answer?"

"He paced around the room for thirty minutes before crossing out both answers and writing a different answer in the margins. 'Saving Aika's life would also mean saving her twintails. Don't be stupid, Twoearle.'"

"...I think he sort of missed the point on that one."

"Oh, for sure, but it reveals that to Souji, his attachment to any random pair of twintails is almost as strong as his love for his best and oldest friend. For him seeing a pair of twintails be destroyed is at least as emotionally distressing as watching someone die."

Oh, wow. Isabella could only shake her head in despair. This was the man who Aika had passed her over for? "Alright, so… what you're saying is I'm not crazy enough to develop a glitch."

Twoearle nodded. "At least not yet, or more accurately you're not needy enough."

Once again she changed the monitor to show an image of eight different 3D models of human bodies of different shapes and sizes. Next to each model was a different crew member's name, and inside their brains was what looked like a glowing light, though in the Warriors that light was a lot brighter. Twoearle's light looked oddly dim as well.

"These are the scans I took earlier, yours was the last."

Isabella squinted at the image for a moment. "Are those our Elemera?"

"Exactly. We'll start with our control group." The images marked Mikoto and Miharu were both zoomed in on. Both of them seemed to have a fairly even distribution of Elemera throughout their brains, though there were some more brightly coloured areas. "These are normal brains. These are two individuals without enough elemera to form a proper orb, but you can see where Mikoto's desire to find a husband is starting to shape into something."

Isabella nodded, as the images changed to hers and Erina's. Inside both of their brains were two distinct circle shapes right on top of where the spine connected to the brain.

"That's your twintail elemera." Twoearle pointed the sphere. "It's a normal size, and it's enough to interface with your tailsuit. If you look closely you can see where your daddy issues used to be dominant, and where you're developing a growing appreciation for androgynous looking girls, which matches with your most recent Moogle search history."

Isabella sat up. "I deleted that before I left home!"

Chuckling, Twoearle shook her head. "Okay, so moving on to Erina, notice something different?"

Of course Isabella wasn't happy to just drop the subject, but she didn't want to get too sidetracked. "What am I looking for?" She focused back on the image.

Twoearle waited for her to guess.

As she watched, Isabella began to notice what the main difference was. "Is that… Elemera coming into her brain?"

"Exactly. What happened to cause her glitch is actually really interesting and probably the most revealing. She has a masochistic streak, but not enough for it to form an Elemera. It was never an obsession that drove her decisions. Her strong feelings of resentment towards her mother, and by extension the Shindo family was enough to form an elemera about their symbol, twintails.

Twoearle continued. "See, twintail Elemera is really powerful and also really stable, and it combines easily with other energies basically making it an ideal form of power for us or anyone else. It doesn't usually produce side effects on its own, but when Erina connected to the Huge Breasts orb in her hybrid twin suit it reached into her mind and destroyed her self control, but only while she was still connected to the suit. The orb was responding to either her internal desire to punish her mother by punishing herself as she was wearing the twintails that symbolizes her mother, or just her desire to, you know, get roughed up a little. Pretty sure it's the second one."

Isabella digested that for a moment. "Alright, so… the twinsuits are basically a catalyst providing the power for the secondary elemera which is reacting with our desires?"

"Exactly." Twoearle smirked triumphantly. "In your beloved senpai's case..."

The image changed to Aika's profile. There were two distinct elemera in her brain, but both of them were leaving long trails of light running throughout her body in long interwoven lines that stretched between her bones and even her muscle tendons. The pattern was almost beautiful.

"Behold the contradiction that is Aika. A woman who claims she desperately wants breasts, and yet the evidence speaks otherwise." Twoearle spoke in a wisened tone, like she was pondering the folly of a young disciple. Then she quickly added, "Never tell her I said any of this, by the way."

"Scared?"

"Absolutely. Look, she says she desperately wants breasts, right? Then she works out for twelve hours a day and is already single digits in terms of body fat. She's basically doing everything in her power to guarantee she'll never grow them! She's insane, absolutely bonkers."

It was a little hard for Isabella to argue against that, but at the same time she didn't want to leave her senpai undefended. "She's not crazy, just… complicated."

A sarcastic snort escaped Twoearle. "Look, she loves karate too much to give it up, but is self conscious enough about the effects it's having on her body to develop such strong feelings on the subject that she developed a flat chest elemera. That's more than just 'complicated'."

Isabella coughed and changed the subject. "So what desire is her Elemera trying to satisfy by giving her superhuman strength?"

"And speed. And resilience. And reaction speeds. And god knows what else." Twoearle sighed. "I don't know. It seems like it's trying to change her into the ultimate warrior or something. It could be responding to her desire to get stronger, or maybe her desire to silence anyone who'd ever comment on her breasts. It could just be that she has a lot of blood lust."

That was certainly a less than flattering interpretation.

"Moving on." Twoearle changed the screen to show Souji's scan, which was divided between his normal form and Sora. As Souji he looked normal except for the two massive orbs in his head that dwarfed almost the entirety of his brain. They were so large they were deformed as they smooshed up against each other and the sides of his skull.

"What the hell?" Isabella gaped.

"Those are both twintail elemera, and they're both extremely overdeveloped." Twoearle then pointed to Sora's scan that showed an even greater level of interference in its cells than Aika's did. "Sora's entire body is basically composed of elemera. Under a normal DNA test it looks like just any girl's cells, but when scanned like this it shows just how dependent it is on twintail elemera. You could go so far as to say Sora is twintails personified in their ideal form."

"...What a friggin' weirdo." Isabella shook her head in disbelief. "That… wow. I see what you mean, now. Like, I always thought I had issues, but by comparison? Wow."

"Yup." Twoearle changed the screen again. "Anyway, moving on, there's Sato."

"I forgot she was even on the ship." Isabella confessed.

"We have one average sized twintail elemera and one freshly developed incest elemera. Very boring."

"Wait, did you just say inc-?"

"And moving right along to the last one of us: Me."

Twoearle's profile showed just a single mid sized ball in her mind, with faint trails leading into her body in a similar pattern to Aika, but with greater focus on her bones and skin than her muscles or organs.

"I'm guessing that my… need to defeat the Elemerians and get revenge for my homeworld resulted in my lolicon attribute trying to preserve my life long enough to see it through. Or maybe Aika just scares me shitless."

"..." Isabella gave Twoearle a look of concern as the scientist stared at her own scan, looking lost. "Twoearle?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you showing me all this?"

"Two reasons mainly." She spun to face Isabella. "I'm pretty sure my theory is missing something. If the glitches are caused by us being connected to our attributes when the suits connect us to our twintail elemera, why am I still glitching? I don't have any twintail elemera." She turned around to face her computer and started typing. "I'm giving you access to my files and equipment. Do me a favour, read it all, and find everywhere I went wrong or my thinking seems flawed."

Isabella considered the proposal and nodded. "Sure, I guess. Not like I've got much better to do. There are other people on this ship a lot smarter than me, though. Why not take this to them?"

"...That's what my second reason was, and you'll figure out what that was when you read it." Twoearle replied cryptically.

There was a long pause as Isabella stared at the back of her head suspiciously. "You know you're a very difficult person to trust."

"Yeah, true." She admitted without looking back. "Now run along, and do your homework. I've gotta modify Aika's suit again thanks to her gravity training."

"Why, what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. It's just at the moment I don't think it really reflects the peak of her potential." Twoearle began typing away on her computer.

No answers seemed forthcoming after that. After watching her type for a moment, Isabella left the room with a shrug. As she rode the elevator back up to her room she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the news she was unlikely to develop her own powers. It's possible that Twoearle's theory was wrong, but… it seemed to fit most of the available facts.

Oh well. It could be worse, or so Isabella supposed. Being relatively healthy wasn't exactly something to be ashamed of.

She could only shake her head and murmur to herself ruefully. "Imagine having such terrible daddy issues that you develop psychic powers or something."

* * *

In another universe, a terrified Maria nearly wet herself when Yamato suddenly sneezed.

From within her sleeve, the graceful girl drew a soft handkerchief and blew her nose, before floating it over to her lackey. "Go clean that."

"R-r-right away." Maria scuttled off hurriedly.


	43. 43 Control

There was a little red warning light on the door next to the training room that flashed whenever Aika was inside, and Souji honestly had no clue why Twoearle thought they needed it. In principle it made sense as a safety measure. If he so much as put a foot in there, his ankle would instantly break from the weight of his torso and him falling onto his face would have the same effect as if he had jumped from a plane without a parachute. Obviously the blinking red light was there to stop anyone entering unknowingly when high gravity was active. It's just that in reality you would have to be completely blind and deaf to not notice the danger from inside when the walls were rattling and what sounded almost like a mix between a jackhammer and countless gunshots were going off.

In normal gravity, Aika weighed about as much as you'd expect, being slim and of average height. Souji could have easily lifted her up by the armpits if she let him. However, under fifty times earth's gravity she weighed several tons, and even her lightest footstep had about as much force behind it as a car crash, but all concentrated on a much smaller surface. That wasn't even getting into the weights she carried for her jog…

Even standing outside the room Souji kept both his hands on his ears and awkwardly leaned on the doorbell with his elbow as he waited for her to notice. There was no way to get in when she was doing her training, the door sealed itself and that was probably for the best. She couldn't even hear the doorbell ringing with the racket she was making. The only way for her to realise there was someone outside was another flashing light on the inside, this one coloured blue. It took a little while for her to spot it, but when she did the sound from inside changed from a thousand cannons going off in rapid succession to a massive creature stomping its way over to the entrance. There was a beep, and the red gravity warning light deactivated.

Souji opened the door to find Aika shrugging off the weights she wore. It was always her preference to wear a karate uniform while practicing, but he couldn't help but hope to find her in yoga pants and a sports bra one of these days. He knew she really didn't need one, but in his mind it looked great.

The loud clang of her backpack hitting the deck shook him out of his imaginings, and she asked him, "Hey, what's up?"

"Twoearle says she's finished modifying your suit."

"Oh, cool." She hesitated, glancing over her shoulder, probably trying to decide if finishing her routine was more important than playing with new toys.

Souji could only roll his eyes at her indecision. "I think you can afford the break."

"Yeah, I know." Aika stepped out and the door closed automatically behind her. "I just don't want to develop any bad habits."

Souji was pretty sure that this _was_ a bad habit, but decided to leave it alone. That gravity training was incredibly dangerous, and if she hurt herself the results could easily be lethal. That wasn't even mentioning the risk of a just a normal sports injury from overworking her body…

Despite these concerns he kept his mouth shut. If he voiced his worries to her, the first thing she would suggest is that he become her training partner, and that was the absolute last thing he wanted to be. Any 'training' the two of them did together would inevitably end up being Tail Red watching boredly and blocking her ears for hours on end while Aika worked.

It was something of a selfish thing to be worried about, Souji knew, but trapped in that room with that sound for that long? No one would ever volunteer.

"Have you done much work on fine control?" He asked instead.

"Hm?"

"I mean, controlling your strength."

"Not yet."

Souji nodded. "Maybe hold off on the strength training until you stop breaking things by accident?"

She grimaced at that, no doubt thinking that time spent not improving was time wasted. "It's fine. As long as I take things slow, there's no risk." To demonstrate, she carefully and deliberately pressed the button for the elevator. "See?" Then she took an exaggerated sip from her canteen.

It wasn't when she was being deliberate that there were any issues, the problem was when she literally tore the limbs off an adult man while she was trying to disarm him in a much less literal sense. If she stopped to think about it, she would know Souji was right, but he could tell she was putting that out of mind just because she was enjoying the rapid growth in her strength so much.

The look of disappointment on his face was obviously affecting her, so she turned to face away from him as they rode the elevator up. A mischievous idea popped into Souji's head, and he suddenly leaned forward to blow on Aika's ear. Instantly she flinched, putting a hand to the side of her head and spinning around to face him.

"Hey!" She blushed.

Souji pointedly looked at her other hand. She followed his gaze to where the metal canteen she was drinking from was crushed between her fingers like dough and leaking blue sports drink down her side and over the elevator floor.

"It's not when you're being careful that I'm worried. It's when you're hugging my mother and something startles you." He explained gently.

Aika stared at the mess, before looking back at him while scowling. "Great. Now I have to wash up."

"Sorry. But you see my point? Please, just, hold off on the training until you've got yourself better under control."

She didn't answer right away, fussing over the leg of her pants.

"Aika?"

"Yeah, you've made your point." She grunted with irritation. "Damn it, Souji."

After that they split up. Aika went to have a quick shower and change her clothes, while Souji headed straight for the lab. He was surprised to find it empty, when Twoearle was supposed to be there waiting for them. He checked her separate office and found it empty, too. It was only when he checked the machine room that he found her, and not alone. From between two large conveyor belts that were making whirring sounds as lasers cut pieces of steel into shape, he saw Isabella and the mad scientist animated like they were having a serious argument.

As he came closer to the two, he was just barely able to hear their conversation over the sound of the machinery.

"-way beyond just being a violation of privacy!" Isabella screeched.

"I know, and I understand your concerns, but-"

"No! Twoearle, you need to tell them!" Isabella grabbed her arm. "This could ruin-!"

Souji was leaning forward to listen more closely when his hip bumped one of the metal sheets that was being cut, and immediately an alarm went off as the machine shut itself down.

Both Isabella and Twoearle looked up at the same time to see him standing there. "I thought we were going to meet in the lab?" He asked, like he hadn't just been listening in on a private argument. "Am I… interrupting?"

Isabella shot him a dirty look and turned to glare at Twoearle, who just raised an eyebrow back. After a moment the catgirl threw up her hands in exasperation before turning to storm off.

Souji watched as she walked away before saying, "What was that about?"

"Something that might come up later." She answered vaguely. "Where's Aika?"

"She was, uh, sweaty so she went to shower and change."

"Fair enough." Twoearle shoved her hands in her coat pockets and headed back to the lab's main room. "How are things going between the two of you, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you know how she feels about you, right?" Twoearle walked over to the strange laser grid case where Aika's tailsuit was being kept before taking out a key and unlocking it. "Any movement on that front?"

Souji couldn't help but grimace. "Why, does it matter?"

"Well, I mean. Since I'm officially out of the race and all, I thought I could at least _watch the finish_."

Gross innuendo aside there was a jolt of guilt that lanced right into Souji's stomach. He looked away from her, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm sorry."

"I mean, sure, but that's not what I'm asking." Twoearle resecured the case and placed the tailsuit down on a table before fixing him with a look. "Now come on, what's the problem? Do you not find her attractive?"

He scoffed at that. "Of course I do. Twintails and flat chests are a classic combination that's stood the test of time, that's not the problem."

"Then what is?" Twoearle smirked. "You know she's crazy about you. At this rate she'll probably end up being a total yandere if you make things that much harder on her."

A chill ran down Souji's spine at the mere thought of that. "Don't even say that."

"Come on, she's got the long, straight black hair and even red tinted eyes. You have to admit she could pull the look off."

"I don't think things will ever get that dire." Twoearle opened her mouth to object, and he rushed over her. "Look, it's not that I don't like her or can't see us together, one day. It's just right now we're in a war that we're a single bad decision away from losing, and all sentient life in every universe might be relying on us, human, cat person or, I dunno, elf?"

"Lame."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure what I want is at least as important as what she wants. If she's not willing to wait for me, then she's welcome to look elsewhere."

"If your mother were here, she'd tell you not to say things you don't think are true."

Souji grimaced at that. She had a point, he didn't like the idea of Aika leaving him for someone else, but at the same time it wasn't fair of him to expect her to wait forever until he was ready. After a moment of silence he opened his mouth to retort when the lab door opened.

Aika stepped through, running a brush through her freshly washed hair. "Sorry I'm late. I got my hair wet without thinking, then I had to dry it."

Long hair like hers took a lot of effort to maintain, especially given just how active she was. Now that he understood just how much work went into twintails, Souji only appreciated them all the more. To his younger self, seeing Aika with her hair down was always a little bit of a disappointment. Now that he had matured in his love of twintails, to him it was more like watching a craftsman at work, slowly assembling a beautiful sculpture with fine materials. It didn't hurt that her skin was flush from the warm water and she smelled of lavender shampoo.

Noticing him staring, she raised an eyebrow, flushing slightly more "What?"

"N-Nothing." Stupid Twoearle, putting ideas in his head.

"You can save that for later." Twoearle interrupted their moment, rolling her eyes. "Here's your updated suit." She slid the blue band across the table to where Aika deftly caught it and put it on.

"What's the update?"

"Currently, every other suit is able to output approximately one hundred tons of force without an extra module attached, though they can do more when they're doing a special attack. With that update, you should be able to apply your base level strength in addition to the suit's strength."

"How much is that?" Souji asked, curiously.

"Currently, without a suit Aika is about half as strong as someone wearing a suit and transformed." Twoearle answered. "Which means that when she's wearing it she'll be one and a half times as strong as you."

Souji turned to look at Aika with disbelief, while she just stood there looking smug.

"And that's not taking into account powers and special abilities, in which case you'll still be stronger as Tailred."

For just a moment Souji felt like he got the short end of the deal with his glitch. Then he remembered just how cute Sora and Red were, and how he still had a whole list of different kinds of twintails he'd yet to try out, and that feeling immediately went away. Truly, he had been blessed by good fortune.

Glancing between the two of them, Twoearle could only shake her head disbelievingly. "You're both absolutely incredible. You know that, right?"

"Do you have an idea of how strong Aika will be able to get if she keeps training like this?"

"I… don't really know, no." Twoearle frowned. "Your suits work by drawing out power from a pair of twintail elemera installed in them with a good deal of efficiency. You both have twintail elemera inside you, one in Aika's case and two in Souji's. Depending on how efficient the connection to her elemera is, Aika in theory could be half as strong as a pair of equally developed elemera, but her twintail attribute could be more developed than the ones in her suit, or maybe her connection could be more efficient." Twoearle could only shrug helplessly.

"Wanna spar?" Aika offered Souji, only half listening to the lecture.

"Where?" He countered. "We're still on the ship."

Despite Twoearle's best efforts, she'd been unable to create a place anywhere on the ship that the Warriors could train safely. The power of the forces involved was too great to be contained by mere armour plating. The twintails were just too great, Souji supposed.

"I guess we'll have to wait until we reach Locale to try it out." Souji sighed. "I mean, are we there yet?"

"Afraid not." Twoearle answered. "We should still be about five days away-"

Suddenly they heard the sound of the ship's intercom. A robotic voice announced. "Captain to the bridge. Repeat, Captain to the bridge. We have arrived at our destination."

There was a moment of baffled silence, before Twoearle shrugged and grabbed her mug of coffee. "Stupid, glitchy robot. There's no way we've arrived. I'll go figure out how they made this mistake."

With that she disappeared through the door.

Souji and Aika glanced at each other, before heading out themselves. By then Aika had finished brushing her hair and was taking a pair of ribbons out of her pocket to tie up her usual twintails.

"Can I do it?" Souji blurted out.

"Hm?" Aika glanced at him and only took a moment to figure out what he wanted. "You want to put up my hair?"

Aware that it was a strangely intimate thing to ask for, Souji blushed and looked away. "You know, never mind-"

"It's fine." Aika quickly interrupted. "Uh, yeah." Then she turned around so the back of her head was towards him.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Aika answered quickly. "Just… I guess it's been so long since you played with my hair. I thought you were bored with it now that you can have your own."

"No." Souji hesitated briefly, taking the ribbon from her hand and briefly touching her palm with his fingers as he did. _Warm_. Carefully, he took her hair with his hands and began to work it into the right shape. "I just didn't want to bother you if I didn't have to."

The long black strands were smooth to the touch, and shiny in the light of the lab. They were even slightly warm from the hair dryer she used earlier. With experienced hands, he pulled her hair up into two symmetrical bundles and tied them off. He examined them carefully, craning his head around to see them from both sides before being satisfied. He couldn't help but notice Aika's ears had turned as red as her face.

"D-done." There really were times when even Aika could be cute, huh?

"Thanks." She mumbled standing up. "I uh, I'm gonna go finish my routine."

"That's cool. I was gonna go play some video games." The two made it to the door at the same time, and Souji paused. "Um, ladies first." He deferred, letting her through.

Still warm in the face and not used to such treatment, Aika stepped out into the corridor. "I guess I'll-"

"All hands on deck!" Twoearle's voice interrupted them over the ship's intercom, sounding panicked. "Everybody get to the bridge! We arrived early and the Elemerians got here ahead of us! It's an entire fleet and we're surrounded!"

* * *

**AN: Fun, fun, fun!**


	44. 44 Full Power to Shields

For almost the first time since the day she was born, Erina had nothing she had to do. No pressure to do homework, social status to up hold, tutors to impress or skills to learn. The time on the spaceship was spent in total peace, without any kind of schedule placed on her at all. At first she was worried she would be bored. How would she know what to do with herself when she wasn't desperately trying to perform to her mother's expectations?

Well it turned out that wasn't a problem at all. It turned out that life where she could sleep in, eat, watch, and generally laze about whenever and however she wanted was absolutely incredible. True bliss.

If only Mikoto hadn't gone and ruined it. After ten days of allowing her young mistress to unwind she decided that slacking off for too long was unacceptable and decided to create a schedule for her. Erina still got to sleep in, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. She still got to eat snacks, but only if she hit the gym afterwards. She was still allowed to watch her favourite shows, but after she was finished with the lessons Mikoto prepared for her daily. After all, the maid was also a qualified high school teacher.

As much as Erina grumbled at the imposition, she understood in the end this was good for her. All in all, it was still nice.

Besides, travelling with all her friends was lovely. Obviously the ship couldn't help but be confining to them, but with everyone on board she felt rather at home. Whether it was Aika and Twoearle bickering, Souji or Sora asking to try something new with her hair or wardrobe, or eating meals made by Mrs Mitsuka or Mikoto; there was a real sense of community that made it feel like the Twintail Club had merely moved to a new venue instead of leaving behind everything they knew.

Currently, Erina was leaning back on her bed and enjoying the relaxing sensation of Sato giving her a pedicure. The maid's firm hands worked wonders, massaging the soles of her feet and using a piece of pumice to rub away any rough skin, leaving only soft youthful flesh behind. Sato was skilled in all the ways a beautician should be, and her massages were amazingly relaxing after Aika put Erina through a workout routine. They were even better when Isabella joined her for what felt almost like a full day at the spa. The only thing Erina really would need to make it perfect would be a way to convince Aika to join, and Souji could come as Sora! Oh, and it would be a great chance to get to know Mrs Mitsuka. It wouldn't hurt to make inroads with the in-laws after all...

Unfortunately, Sato was the only one around who could give them the treatment, and any day with just one beautician and so many people to work on would mostly just involve a lot of waiting around. Maybe some of the droids could be taught to-

One of the droids she was just thinking of gave an announcement to the whole ship. "Captain to the bridge. Repeat, Captain to the bridge. We have arrived at our destination."

Erina arched an eyebrow. "I thought we were still weeks away?"

"I can go check if you like, Mistress."

"...No, it's probably just a mistake." Erina leant back and let the maid continue her work until, minutes later, Twoearle's voice came over the intercom, sounding almost panicked.

"All hands on deck! Everybody get to the bridge! We arrived early and the Elemerians got here ahead of us! It's an entire fleet and we're surrounded!"

It took a few moments for the urgency of that statement to process. Then, "Oh… Oh!" Erina bent forward to quickly pull the cotton balls from between her toes and stood up.

"Miss, we're not finished."

"I know!" Answered back before quickly changing out of her bathrobes into a tracksuit. It wasn't a remotely fashionable look, but she'd be fighting transformed and they didn't have time for her to get properly changed. She staggered out the door, almost tripping as she pulled on her sandals before running up to the bridge.

Behind her, Sato calmly and methodically began packing up her tools, acting as though there were no crisis at all.

* * *

Sweat beaded on Twoearle's forehead, and without a second thought she rubbed it away with the sleeve of her lab coat. That was the great thing about having robots crew the ship. It didn't matter if she betrayed signs of nervousness, the drones didn't know or care. A droid wouldn't even bat an eyelid if she whipped out a bottle of vodka and drained it on the spot.

Not that she ever drank, really. Twoearle had plenty of other vices. Ones that she was afraid she might never get to indulge again.

Never in her month of wearing them had the Captain's hat and pauldrons weighed on her so heavily. As great as they looked on her, she was forced to acknowledge how unworthy of their majesty she really was. She had never fought a space battle before!

"I don't even play chess, let alone strategy games!"

The sound of the bridge door sliding open behind her was all the warning Twoearle had. She shot up from despairing into her palms and instead forced herself to lean back into her seat and smirk confidently. It wouldn't help if she made the others nervous.

"What's going on?" The only man on the crew asked, stepping into the bridge and of course accompanied by the resident barbarian.

The sense of relief Twoearle immediately felt from their presence was startling. She briefly wondered why the two of them being there would ever be so relieving, but pushed that feeling aside to question another time.

"Somehow they moved this universe closer to Earth, which is why we're here early, and they detected our approach sometime last month. They have eleven ships, and at least one of them is a lot bigger than ours."

At her explanation, Souji kept glancing between the different screens, obviously not able to read any of them. On the different displays were lots of charts and numbers, none of which he could understand.

"What do the cameras show?"

Twoearle rolled her eyes, but obliged him by bringing up the various views from around the ship. All of them showed nothing useful, just an empty field of distant stars.

He blinked in confusion. "I thought you said we were surrounded?"

A new voice piped up as Isabella stepped into the bridge. "We are just at distances too great to be seen. It will take at least half an hour from the light from our ship to travel to them and vice versa. We're a thousand times further apart from them than the Earth is from the sun."

Twoearle added. "We can only detect them from their twintail Elemera energy, and they can only detect us the same way."

"So why aren't they shooting at us?"

"Because it would take even the fastest projectile literal years to reach us. Without Elemera there's no way to even approach light speed."

"Oh." He thought about it for a minute. "Then are we even in that much trouble?"

"Yes, because those Elemera powered ships can still cross that distance easily."

This time Aika asked, "So why haven't they?"

"Because they don't know where we are exactly. The same way I don't know where they are exactly, but eventually their sensors are going to give them a much clearer image."

A look of comprehension came over Souji's face. "We're not playing battleships, we're playing tag and hide and go seek."

Isabella and Twoearle glanced at each other before shrugging. "Yeah, that fits?"

Souji frowned, considering the problem. "So we're only here to collect the Elemera on Locale, right? Can't we just run?"

"I mean, we could." Twoearle answered. "The thing is they somehow moved our universes closer to each other, probably by hooking into the tunnel that connects Earth and Catyu. They're obviously planning a massive invasion. If we don't stop them here we won't have a home to go back to."

That ominous statement hung in the air.

"I don't know about you guys, but saving Earth sounds a lot more important than gathering elemera." Aika said aloud.

That gave Twoearle pause. "...They might actually be the same thing." When they all looked at her she explained, "They need to consume elemera to survive, right? If we can seize their supply, they might have to quit or face starvation."

"Is there any way we can find out where they keep their elemera?" Isabella asked.

Twoearle hesitated. "The limitations that apply to them also apply to us, but we should be able to triangulate a large mass of Elemera like that fairly easily if we change positions."

Isabella added. "Can we lure them into a trap somehow? Individually we're probably stronger than they are."

"That's a big assumption." Aika interrupted. "Even if we can defeat officer class Elemerians, we've never encountered anyone stronger than an adjutant. Who knows how powerful a Fleet Admiral would be?"

"Maybe, but our individual strength is still probably our best bet. If we can't even defeat them one on one, how are we ever going to battle them as a whole?" Souji shook his head. "As arrogant as it might be, we have to believe our strongest can take on their strongest or we'll never be able to win."

Just then the bridge door opened and Erina ran inside looking frazzled. "Sorry I'm late. Sato was just doing my treatments and I got here as fast as I could!"

Twoearle felt a flash of irritation that she'd have to say everything all over again, but Isabella quickly pulled her aside and began quietly explaining the situation.

Aika said, "So we need to find where they're keeping the elemera and their tunnel. If we can destroy or capture those we can force them to retreat." She turned to Twoearle.

That was absolutely something Twoearle could do. As long as the Elemerians weren't putting out their own chaf, so much elemera being concentrated in one place would make it a veritable beacon of energy. With a few swift button presses, she jumped their ship to a different place, then brought up what looked like a heat map of the star system, with an enormous amount of energy being emitted outwards from the largest alien ship. As for the tunnel, that was only slightly trickier. If the intention was for ships to pass through it then it couldn't be aboard any of the ships themselves, so after scanning the rest of the system quickly, Twoearle was able to detect small amounts of elemera on the planet Locale itself. She'd have to move the cruiser closer to be sure, but that was almost certainly where the portal was.

"It's probably heavily defended." Aika speculated. "If we're gonna get both of them we'll need to split into two teams."

"If we're going for the tunnel, I'll need to be on that team." Twoearle said. "You can't just blow it up, or it could destabilise the connection between the Earth and Catyu tunnels, which you've already seen how ugly that can get. I'll need to shut it down carefully."

"We have two ships and only two pilots." Isabella added. "So however we split up, I'm gonna have to pilot the other ship."

"So it sounds like Twoearle will be taking the little ship to Locale, because the cruiser can't land in orbit." Souji reasoned. "Which means Isabella will have to take the big cruiser to help board the big enemy ship. Which just leaves where to split the three of us." He glanced at Aika and Erina.

"I think it would be best if Erina went with to take on the enemy capital ship." Aika advised. "Her weapons are better suited for fighting lots of enemies at once."

Souji nodded. "Alright and where do you want to go?"

Aika considered for a moment before grimacing. "Even with my recent upgrades, your special attacks are still more powerful than mine. As much as I'd rather be there, you should be the one to board the ship."

With all that decided, there wasn't much left to disgust. The Warriors made what preparations they could, each carefully choosing the elemera they planned on using for their modules before splitting up.

As the two teams left the armoury, they paused to quickly say goodbye to Aika.

"You two watch out for each other."

"Kill them all, senpai!"

"Do your best."

Aika smiled back at them, quickly hugging Isabella, ruffling Erina's hair to her annoyance, and hesitating slightly before clasping Souji's hand. "Stay safe."

* * *

Isabella stepped onto the bridge and went to sit in the pilot's chair, only to find it occupied. Twoearle's captain's hat sat there, with a little sticky note on top that said, 'I WANT THIS BACK ACTING CAPTAIN! ;)' She chuckled for a moment before pulling it on top of her head, only to take it back off right away when it compressed her car ears uncomfortably.

"Throw that in a locker somewhere." She tossed it to a nearby droid before settling into the chair. She raised her wrist to her mouth and said into the communicator. "Pink, ready."

"Red, ready."

"Yellow, I'm ready."

"Blue, we're both good to go."

Breathing out, Isabella opened the bay doors and watched as the smaller Tailship flew out into space before closing them once more.

"Turning on the imagine flak, now." Isabella announced and pushed another button.

Immediately a counter popped up onto the screen, going backwards from seven minutes. That was the amount of time they had until the flak that was already launched was spread enough. Hopefully it would hide the smaller ship while Isabella carried out her part of the plan.

When it reached zero she reached forward and typed in some quick calculations into the controls before the ship immediately accelerated. They were going vastly faster than light, and so the cameras showed nothing but Twoearle's screensavers of small children in school swimsuits until suddenly the ship returned to mundane speeds right next to the massive enemy ship.

Though not as big as the harvester ring, the enemy ship was easily a dozen or more kilometres in length, utterly dwarfing the comparatively tiny, two hundred and a handful metre long tail cruiser. All over its hull, the Elemerian ship was covered in massive black spikes that emitted great crackling bolts of violet lightning, like solar flares shooting off a black star.

Suddenly the entire enemy ship began to glow, and Isabella rapidly jerked the controls upwards. As she did, the lightning from the enemy ship shot out towards the tail cruiser, and only thanks to her quick reactions did they barely avoid a direct hit. The attack had still scored a glancing hit, and a long red hot line of melted metal poured off the ship in zero gravity molten droplets, before cooling against the Void of space.

In the bridge, Isabella checked the damage and felt her stomach flip as she realised the entire left side of the Tailcruiser was losing air pressure. If Mrs Mitsuka, Mikoto and Sato weren't in the air tight safe room just down the hall from the cockpit, they'd probably be dead right now.

Shuddering at the thought, Isabella hit a button and a spray of billions of tiny reflective silver shards were launched in a ring formation around the tail cruiser as it closed in on the enemy ship. The much larger vessel fired again, but the bolts of lightning were caught in the field, bouncing harmlessly between the fragments before eventually dispersing.

As she passed the enemy ship, the reflectors still hanging in formation around the Tailcruiser impacted the enemy hull and clung to it. Immediately the lightning emitters went haywire, as any attempt to charge them for an attack was disrupted and sent away to another part of the ship. Rather than risk damage, the Elemerian ship turned off its emitters entirely, before a whole set of rocket pods began to extend from its sides.

Before it could finish, Isabella pressed a button on her control panel, and two missiles of her own were launched. They sped through space, and without the lightning to protect it, the missiles homed in perfectly on the enemy ship and smashed right through one of its bulkheads. Strangely though, these missiles didn't seem to explode.

"We're both onboard!" Souji's voice came over Isabella's communicator a few seconds later.

"Copy." Without waiting a moment longer, Isabella pointed her ship so it was aiming past the enemy and accelerated to faster than light speeds. The enemy missiles which had only just fired all missed completely as their target disappeared from view. It would take them centuries before they hit anything, and by then the battle would be long over.

The enemy ship wasn't quite finished yet, though. Just as quickly and easily as the Tailcruiser had, the capital ship accelerated and set off in pursuit. Alongside the rest of the alien fleet...

Meanwhile, unnoticed in the midst of the battle, the much smaller ship piloted by Twoearle moved towards Locale.

* * *

The boarding pod was little more than a metal tube with an inertia dampener inside to protect its cargo, and a rocket booster on its rear to propel it through space. For Tailred, the journey it took her on lasted mere seconds and was so cushioned that she had no idea at all when she hit the enemy ship. There was a small ding, and a green light flashed once before the pod slid open with a hiss of escaping gas.

She sat up and found herself alone in what looked like a machine shop of some kind. A herd of small Ultiroids poured out of the exit while a large fur coated black and white Elemerian with long claws and black spots around his eyes drew an enormous sword and faced off against her.

"We're on board!" Tailred told Isabella through the communicator quickly before drawing her own sword and jumping to her feet.

"Copy."

"Eulalia!" The badgergildy cried before charging.

As the two crossed swords, Red felt grateful to Aika for the time the two had spent practicing with wooden swords and spears during their journey. For an operation like this where energy conservation was vital, big flashy named attacks would drain her limited supply of power dry long before she got to the Elemera supply.

In the end, Red was stronger and faster than a garden variety gildy. She impaled the much taller alien through the chest before kicking him away and rushing into the corridor.

The tailsuit's heads up display revealed the location of Yellow and the largest source of elemera that was nearby. The first thing that she had to do was meet up with Yellow, who was only a hundred metres away and up a level. At first she considered just heading straight to her friend, but decided against it when she looked up the corridor and saw a T intersection. No doubt just running off would be a good way to get lost.

As she considered her options, Red spotted a small hatch with a handle on it that was open. It was so small she doubted any gildy could possibly fit into it, but a girl like her who was all of four foot nothing?

It was small inside, and as short as she was she still had to crouch to fit, but she found what looked like a tiny little access corridor that ran to her left and right, but also had rungs embedded in one wall heading up. Looking overhead she was able to make out a gap in the ceiling through which could see the distant forms of ultiroids climbing away from her.

This was probably some kind of maintenance corridor, wasn't it? Of course proud warriors like the Elemerians would never stoop to cleaning up after themselves or doing the menial work of an electrician. It only made sense that they would use ultiroids for that.

This whole ship must have endless networks of ultiroid sized tunnels running through it so the little creatures could go about unseen and maintain the vital functions of the ship.

Rather than having to fight an endless number of gildys, this might just be the perfect way to travel the ship. Erina could probably even fit if Yellow changed back!

Without waiting any longer for Elemerian reinforcements to arrive, Red grabbed the first rung and began to climb upwards to meet Yellow.

* * *

AN: This space battle got a little too realistic given the nature of this setting, didn't it?

Thanks to Enid for editing.


	45. 45 Assassination

Aika suspiciously squinted out the window of the ship as they zoomed closer to what looked like a large city. It was easily comparable to the likes of New York or Tokyo in terms of its skyline. The high tech metropolis was dominated by flying cars and giant holographic displays that dominated the streets from above. As a whole, the city looked like it sat somewhere between the style of a cyberpunk megatropolis and an iPod, with smooth white corners on everything and no visible seams in any of the building's construction.

It all made Aika very uneasy. The somewhat ugly architecture wasn't the problem, it was something else that didn't sit right with her.

"I thought you said the portal would be somewhere they could fly a ship through it?"

Twoearle glanced at her instruments. "I thought they would too, but the portal is apparently just up ahead."

"Why would they bother with one so small?"

The scientist shrugged. "Maybe they only built it to move something really small?"

Aika frowned at that. The answer didn't seem reasonable, after all the Elemerians goal was to harvest the attributes from Earth and Catyu. A portal that only one or two, or even a dozen Elemerians could fit through at a time wasn't going to accomplish that.

This definitely didn't feel right. If she was in their position, Aika wouldn't waste her time and resources on a potentially unstable portal that could easily destroy the very resources that she was pursuing. Especially if she knew her enemies were likely to target it.

Her eyes widened.

Likely to target it… Oh, no.

"It's a trap! Get us out of here-" Aika was interrupted by the sight of one of the flying cars suddenly being jerked out of formation and hitting the side of the ship with a thunderous crash. Red lights flashed across the bridge, and the entire ship lurched towards the ground.

Twoearle yelled and tried to correct their course, but another flying car hit their ship from above. With their nose pointed firmly down and the ground rushing up at them, along with what looked like more flying cars closing in, Aika did the only thing she could think of. Transforming into Blue, she grabbed Twoearle's chair and ripped it out of the floor. Then she smashed her heel into the window, shattering it, before leaping out and throwing Twoearle's chair upwards. The scientist was flung, screaming into the air, as Blue hit the ground and rolled before coming to her feet to catch Twoearle before she landed.

Pale faced, Twoearle clung to the sides of her seat and craned her neck to watch as their ship plowed into and through several massive skyscrapers.

The gargantuan structure, easily dwarfing anything on Earth began to tilt over, and as quickly as she could Twoearle took out her helmet and put it on. The roar of the thousands of tons of glass and concrete hitting the ground reminded Blue almost of that nuclear bomb going off back in Nekorea, and the dust cloud that was thrown up blotted out the sun.

For several minutes, the warrior sheltered the scientist with her body until the debris stopped raining down around them, though their vision was still impaired by the cloud that hung in the air.

"You okay?" Blue asked.

"Yeah." Twoearle answered, and unbuckled her seat belt. "Did you have to throw me? You could have flown us out of there."

"Yellow has the ribbon Elemera." Blue reached down to help her stand up, before turning to peer around through the dust cloud. "...They were trying to kill you."

"What?!" Twoearle spun to face her. "Me?!"

"The tailsuits can easily handle something like a building collapsing. They knew only you would be able to shut down the portal safely, so they lured you in to where they rigged some flying cars to crash into you. We'd never notice them because they were just part of the city's general traffic."

Through the visor on the helmet Twoearle gaped at her before swallowing. "Why would they want to kill me?"

Blue considered for a moment. "You're the one who builds and maintains all our technology. Without you eventually the catapults and the spaceships and even the suits will stop working. If they can cut you out of the picture, the Warriors will eventually cease to exist."

"Oh… Oh, no…" Twoearle started looking around nervously, hiding behind Blue's back. "Do you think maybe that they think they got me? Maybe they'll go home now the job's done?"

"...If it was me, I wouldn't stop until I had a body."

"Oh, very well deduced, Tailwarrior Blue." Suddenly an unfamiliar voice rang out.

Both the warrior and the scientist flinched as all the dust in the air was sucked away with a whoosh, and sunlight suddenly poured into the darkness. Squinting, they looked around and saw two women standing a small distance away.

One of them Blue recognised immediately as Dark Grasper, the black and purple clad human traitor they'd fought back on Earth. She looked much the same as she had last time, though the expression on her face was a little strange. Her complexion was a little pale, and seemed to be clutching her scythe more than simply holding it. Her eyes kept darting between Twoearle and the other figure, almost nervously.

This new figure almost looked similar. Her outfit was a black skin suit, much like Grasper's, but with a long skirt that stretched to her ankles, and the metallic armour plating around her upper torso had a banded, almost samurai like look to it. Her long black hair was done in a perfect pair of twintails that hung over her shoulders, though Blue couldn't see how they were tied. Her coal black irises made it almost impossible to tell where her pupils started and the rest of her eyes began.

Her whitened, dainty lips raised at the corners to smile faintly, but the expression didn't reach the rest of her face. Blue could tell it was purely performative. "You're quite clever. I'm impressed."

Something about the way she spoke tickled the back of Aika's brain. There was a familiar quality to her tone that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "This is the part where you offer to let me join you if I hand over Twoearle, isn't it?"

"May I take that as a no?"

"I don't even know your name." Blue replied, summoning her spear and pointing it at the stranger. "And there's no way I'm giving Twoearle up to the likes of-"

She didn't even get to finish. Before the Warrior could say another word, something invisible seized her around the neck and jerked her into the air, before slamming her back into the ground. Concrete shattered at the force, and Blue didn't even have time to gasp before she was jerked up once more. Again and again she was thrashed into the ground, leaving almost a dozen craters in the road, knocking the air from her lungs and making the spear fall helplessly from her hands. Then she was flung, like a ball from a giant's hands away over the top of the buildings that surrounded them to disappear completely out of sight.

The stranger looked towards Twoearle, who staggered a step backwards in shock. "Well, at least I made the offer."

* * *

Yellow was feeling strange. The rush she usually received from battle was definitely there, but it was different. Usually the desire to give and receive was so strong all she could do was moan euphorically and charge straight at her enemies, but today it was different. Not quite subdued, but maybe less prominent? The sadomasochistic thrill of hurting and being hurt wasn't the only thing she could think of anymore, but just one of the things she was thinking of.

The twin rotary barreled plasma guns in her hands spat out vast quantities of glowing blue death, and the gildys she aimed at were torn to pieces. The sounds of their dying words and explosions made her grin, just as the sheer power of her attacks surprised her. Normally it took a bit more firepower than that to deal with them, but right now every enemy she came across was cut to pieces quickly and easily. She hadn't even had to break out a more serious weapon, yet.

The halls of the Ultimaguil spaceship were filled with fleeing ultiroids that she decided to ignore. They didn't matter, and she'd need to save her ammo for later. Her HUD showed Tailred's location, and they were both moving towards each other, but the endless maze of corridors and intersections kept on forcing her to detour. Even now from the way Red was moving around, it seemed like there was only a wall separating them.

"Red, can you hear me?" She asked into her communicator.

"Yeah, we're right next to each other."

Yellow chewed her lip for a second before turning so her rocket packs were facing the wall. "Alright, stand back. I'm gonna blast through to you."

"What? No, no wait-wait!" On the other side of the wall, the marker indicating where Red was started darting about nervously.

There was a pause.

"Yellow?" Red asked, sounding confused.

"Yeah?"

"...You didn't shoot down the wall?"

Yellow's eyebrows came together. "You told me not to?"

"I mean I did, but I just assumed that you would anyway." Then she quickly added. "But thanks for not, uh, doing that. But um, I'm in the wall, so just let me cut my way out, please."

"Copy."

Yellow backed away a step as a red blade suddenly protruded from the bulkhead. There was a metallic shriek as Red jerked the blade down before slashing it across, up and across again. With four quick cuts she slashed a person sized hole into the wall and kicked it outwards, where it fell to the deck with a load bang.

A second later Red poked her head out, and smiled. "Hey. Any trouble?"

"Just some normal elemerians." Yellow glanced back down the way she came, before shrugging at her friend. "I was kind of expecting more, this has been a little easy so far."

"Don't say that!" Red winced, quickly looking around as if she was afraid they'd be struck by lightning. When no sudden explosions or enemies appeared, she sighed and pinned Yellow with an angry look. "Never say anything like that while we're in the middle of a mission. It's just asking for trouble."

Feeling appropriately chastised, Yellow could only nod, embarrassed. She was genre savvy enough to know that of course tempting fate like that was foolish. Any time someone said something like that ever in one of her shows or anime, it meant that things were about to go badly wrong.

"Now come on. If you change, Erina should be able to fit into here, and we can take these maintenance tunnels all the way to the stockpile."

Yellow looked past her at the small space. "Are you sure that's a good idea? My other form is pretty vulnerable."

"Yeah, but you can save energy, and if we run into trouble you can just change back." Red shimmied back into the space to make room. "Besides, this is better than fighting our way across the entire ship."

Ugh, that was probably true. As much as the idea of being merely human here of all places frightened her, they had a mission to complete. After taking a moment to steel herself, Yellow changed back into Erina, and ducked down to follow Tailred into the space. The roof was just a little too low for her to walk at her full height, so she was hunched over as she followed behind Red. Definitely a novel sensation for the petite blonde.

"How far do we have to go?" She asked. Her hud wasn't active when she wasn't transformed.

"Just a bit more than a kilometre as the crow flies." Red answered back. "But we'll definitely have to detour."

...Erina's neck was definitely gonna need a massage after this.

* * *

To hide her terrified trembling, Twoearle shoved her hands in her coat pockets. While fighting as a Warrior in her own time she'd been invincible right up until that encounter with Dragongildy. Nowadays she had never once created a weapon she could use capable of defeating Aika in her base form, let alone when she was transformed. In her pockets all she had was a heat ray that might be able to warm a cup of tea from across the room, and an activation key to a space jump catapult that didn't exist in this world. Certainly nothing that could help her now that she was back on Locale.

Wait a second… This was her homeworld wasn't it? Which meant the catapult she'd built in her secret base should still be active, shouldn't it? If she could just somehow calibrate her key to the Locale Catapult, she could escape couldn't she?

But that would leave Aika alone here with the two blacksuited new enemies, wouldn't it?

Speaking of whom, the new girl smiled at Twoearle, apparently amused. "Well, that's that then." Her head slowly turned towards Dark Grasper. "If you would?"

She looked back at her. "If I would what?"

"What we agreed to."

Dark Grasper looked confused, glancing between her and Twoearle. "What did we agree to?"

"You don't remember?" The girl tsked. "We all agreed that you should be the one to do the honours."

Behind those glasses, eyes widened with realisation. "W-what?"

That black gaze lingered on Dark Grasper's face. "You know what."

Her fingers clutched her scythe fearfully. "Y-you want me to kill her?"

The newcomer just kept smiling.

"H-hold on." Twoearle suddenly spoke up and they both looked at her. Face growing damp with sweat, she quickly continued. "We can talk about this, right? I mean, you can just take me prisoner, right? I surrender."

"...Kill her."

Dark Grasper flinched. "But she surrendered."

"That's not what we're here for." Those black eyes regarded Twoearle, and even from this distance she saw herself reflected in them. "We're here to end this rebellion once and for all. Now end it."

Swallowing fearfully, Dark Grasper turned to face Twoearle. She glanced between her old friend and her new superior, before taking a step forward.

"W-wait a minute, you don't have to do this." Twoearle held up her hands and backed away fearfully, mind racing. If she could just somehow delay them until she could recalibrate the catapult gate. "A-Aisana, we know each other."

Rather than answer, Dark Grasper trembled as she approached, but still raised her scythe.

Because she wasn't looking where she was going, Twoearle didn't notice that she'd stepped off the road and onto the footpath. The change in elevation made her trip up, and she fell over backwards onto her rear. When she looked up she saw Dark Grasper standing over her, weapon raised to strike. Her lips moved as though she was saying something, but no sounds came out.

"Please don't kill me!" Twoearle shrieked and covered her face. Then the blow never fell. Once again she looked up at her executioner. Dark Grasper stood there over her, staring at her with wide eyes as she mouthed something. It took Twoearle a moment to realise what was being said.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE."

Twoearle blinked at that.

When her victim did nothing, Dark Grasper whispered in a low tone. "Hurry. Use the catapult, get us out of here!"

It took the scientist a moment to catch on. Looking past Grasper, she saw the other dark suited girl watching them with an eyebrow impatiently arched at the delay.

Then it clicked in Twoearle's mind. Dark Grasper is scared of her. Aisana's also a prisoner.

As fast as she could, Twoearle reached into her pocket to grab the catapult key and took it out. She only just opened the interface up to start coding when the device was ripped from her hands to float in front of the new girl's delicate face.

"Ah, I see how it is." There was a spray of sparks and a snapping sound as their last hope was crushed into a ball, and dropped to the ground like so much discarded trash. "You can't do it, can you Grasper?"

"..."

She shook her head and sighed in an exaggerated display of disappointment. "Oh well."

Without warning the scythe was ripped from Grasper's hands, and she was jerked into the air as invisible pressure was applied to her throat. Grasper struggled and kicked, choking as the glasses fell from her face, and cracked onto the asphalt.

"You know, you really should have just done it." The girl murmured softly, gracefully gliding forward past Gasper's struggling form like she didn't even notice it was there. "You could have finished your old flame off instantly, but now that I have to take over…"

Terrified, Twoearle looked up into those black, bottomless eyes and saw not even the faintest trace of mercy. In that gaze, Twoearle realised she'd found only a long, agonising death.

"Wh-who are you?"

The girl smirked. "In this form I'm Antiwarrior Black. But usually I go buy Yamato 002. Now tell me, which of your bones do you think you could live best withou-"

A blue blur smashed into Black with such force, that the shockwave of it sent Twoearle flying head over heels backwards. Somehow she landed on her belly, and when she looked up she saw Blue standing where Black had been, her fist clenched. Of the anti-warrior there was no sign.

The psychic hold on Dark Grasper disappeared, and she fell down sucking in lungfuls of air as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Blue rushed over to her friend. "Are you okay?"

Before she could get an answer though, a loud rumbling came from off in the distance. A long jagged crack ran down the middle of the road right between them, and a massive chasm opened up in the ground. They both looked towards the source, and saw Black floating there as enormous slabs of the road rose up around her in formation.

Twoearle nearly wet herself as she scrambled back to her feet.

Blue glanced over to Dark Grasper who was slowly standing up. "Take Twoearle and run!" She ordered, before blitzing forwards to charge at Black. Massive blocks of debris were launched at Blue who zigged to the side and leapt over one to disappear from view behind a cloud of dirt fragments.

Grasper didn't need to be told twice, quickly snatched up her now cracked glasses and ran over to grab up Twoearle into a princess carry.

"Your friend is amazing." She said as she ran.

"Don't talk, just get us out of here!" Twoearle shrieked as what sounded like a bomb went off in the distance. She had a feeling that 'collateral damage' would be a terrible understatement.

* * *

**AN: I think by now ya'll know what I like.**

**Thank Enid for editing this.**


	46. 46 We Talking Dawn, Guns Drawn

To be honest, Blue had no real idea what had just transpired between Twoearle and Dark Grasper, but she was pretty sure she didn't need the details. The Warrior came back just in time to see Grasper being strangled by that unseen power, and the dead eyed killer in black looming over Twoearle. There was no chance to ask questions or assess the situation.

Without holding anything back, without shouting something that might give her away, Blue threw herself into a powerful strike that broke the road under her as she pushed off from the ground. Her fist neared it's target just as those dark eyes began to turn towards her. As they did, immediately she just barely felt something begin to push back against her. Not only that, but her enemy began to rapidly draw away at the same time. Most of the power of her strike still went through, but what Blue had hoped would be a critical blow felt only a little more powerful than her normal punch.

The attack was still more than enough to send the enemy flying, but was nowhere near as effective as it normally would have been.

There wasn't any time to dwell on that, though. That psychic was definitely still out there, and was absolutely going to try and kill Twoearle again.

The scientist herself was staring up at Blue, absolutely shocked. No doubt her reaction speeds weren't high enough for her to see much of what happened at all. She hadn't even noticed that her breasts had fallen out of her top when she'd been thrown.

"Are you okay?" Blue asked, worried that she might have hurt Twoearle by accident.

Before there was a chance to answer, what felt like an Earthquake shuddered through the ground and split the road. That psychic rose up in the air, great clods of earth trailing dust as they rose into formation around her, and Blue immediately realised she had no way to keep Twoearle safe and fight at the same time.

For all that Dark Grasper was a known enemy, she was mostly just Twoearle's obsessive stalker, and unlikely to kill her. Not to mention the fact she'd been being strangled a moment ago.

"Take Twoearle and run!" Was all Blue had time to say before dashing forward to face her enemy.

Immediately, one of those giant projectiles was thrown at her so fast it was like it was shot from a canon, and Blue ducked to the side as it exploded into the road behind her, throwing up another massive shockwave.

Without a single movement or hand gesture, the next piece of debris seemingly fired itself at her and Blue had to leap up to avoid being caught in it. Even while she was mid air another block was thrown at her on a perfect arc to intercept Blue. She just barely twisted to evade, while snatching at a piece of rebar hanging from the side of the concrete. With that handhold she was able to pull, and yanked the length of metal free before flipping to throw it at the psychic.

What sounded like an explosion went off as the improvised spear broke the sound barrier. Any human or pretty much anything it hit would have been impaled, but the attack was merely redirected around the psychic's protective bubble. She had only had to turn her head slightly to evade, but still she looked behind herself at where the projectile struck a flying car and pinned it to the side of the building.

The Psychic turned back towards Blue, jaw clenched and nostrils flaring in apoplectic fury. For a moment they locked vision, Blue seeing hot, hateful murder in those eyes, before her enemy breathed out once long and slow, and composure returned. It was amazing the way even a beautiful girl's face could be distorted to something rather ugly by rage. When she was back to serenity she was gorgeous enough that Blue felt faintly jealous.

"Normally you would have been defeated by that." That faintly sadistic, deliberately calm tone already grated on Blue's nerves.

"Yeah, well I can say the same thing. My kick didn't even bruise you."

That provoked a reaction. Those black eyes narrowed ever so slightly for just a moment. With incredible powers like hers, Blue could only assume she hadn't even been hit once in a very long time. Any 'fight' she was in would have been a completely one sided massacre. No wonder she was so damn angry.

"You've grown stronger since your days of beating gildy's to death."

Aika scowled. "You saw that footage?"

"I did. I doubt the average gildy would survive even one casual blow from your firsts now, if what I just saw was anything to judge by."

"Yeah well, you'd be the one to know." Blue smirked, deliberately scuffing her kicking foot against the ground.

The psychic's eye twitched once, faintly before she got it under control. "How very cute. I suppose I'm glad that I decided to handle Twoearle personally."

"And why's that?"

"I have no doubt the other anti-warriors would have struggled against you. If you're here, then I'm guessing Pink, Red and Yellow are your boarding party?"

Actually, Pink was driving the spaceship so it was just Red and Yellow, but Blue wasn't going to say that. "Yeah, your, what did you call them, 'anti warriors', will be up against even more Tailwarriors like me."

The anti-warrior burst into chuckles at that.

"What's so funny?"

She slowly descended until she delicately touched down onto the ground. "You don't know? Your friends are nothing like you."

"What are you even talking about?"

"Hmm, what if I put it like this: Surrender to me now or fight me and we tear this city to pieces. I promise, thousand of these... people will die. Every single building and every single vehicle here has someone with a family inside it. All of them will be completely helpless in the face of the destruction we are about to unleash.

So tell me, Blue, do you surrender or do you fight?"

Without hesitating, Blue said, "We fight."

"That's what I thought. Pink, real name Isabella, is just a spoilt rich girl with no real special traits to speak of. Thanks to Orchidmantisgildy we know everything about just how pathetic she really is… Not a threat. Then there's Yellow, nothing but a mindless, lust filled berserker. Brash, thuggish, dumb. Not a threat. Then there's Red who cringes with sympathy, even for lowly gildies as you crush them brutally. Far too soft hearted, that little girl. But you… have eyes like mine.

Black smirked as she tapped at the side of her head. "Resolved to kill. If one of them were here in place of you they'd do anything to convince me to move the fight elsewhere, to protect the poor innocent people. But you know that I'm not going to do that. You're not even going to try and convince me, because you know it will be futile.

"And that's why it's good that I'm here, instead of waiting to ambush you on our ship. My anti-warriors will deal with your friends easily, and I'll do the hard, bloody part."

Throughout the whole monologue, Blue stood silent, and for a moment after she remained so. Until she snorted once with disbelief.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm amazed you're stupid enough to trust a rat like Orchidmantisgildy." Blue shook her head ruefully. "It sounds like everything he told you is either a lie, or completely outdated."

The psychic girl scowled at that. "People don't change so quickly."

"We'll see." Blue smirked confidently. "Right now you know who I am, but I've never even heard of you."

"Antiwarrior Black."

"Great." Blue cracked her knuckles. "Now that all your posturing is finally out of the way, are you ready to do this, Black?"

"To the death, then?" Black took one step back and alighted back up into the air.

"No." Blue shook her head and summoned her spear. "This goes until you beg me to stop. And then we'll see just how alike we really are."

"I agree to those terms." Rather than being frightened, Black smiled, the first genuine one Blue had seen on her. "We duel to the breaking."

"...To the breaking." Aika consented.

Black chuckled.

"Be careful what you wish for." The warrior warned.

"We'll see. But I'm afraid our date will have to wait for another time and occasion. Your friend is getting away, and you have a ride to catch."

From overhead, a flying car suddenly broke formation and accelerated down towards Blue. Immediately she went to dodge, but her feet were somehow stuck to the ground. In the microseconds available, Blue only just had time to realise it was Black's psychic power holding her in place and see the satisfied smirk on the antiwarrior's face, before the car smashed into her.

It didn't stop there, though. Though the front of the car crumpled up like a ball, killing its driver instantly, somehow it still accelerated, driving Blue down through the road and the ground beneath it, to smash into a shallow storm water drain. Sitting up, she threw the wreckage off of her where it smashed into a wall before she spat out a mouthful of filthy, lukewarm pond water.

"Oh, you have no idea what you've just done."

* * *

Carrying Twoearle like a princess had been a fantasy of Aisana's for quite some time. In her head she'd always loved the idea of a pair of matching wedding dresses and a small circle of friends attending the ceremony, because obviously there was no way they would invite their parents.

As with most things in Aisana's life, the reality was very different from her imagination. Fleeing in terror as what sounded like a series of explosions went off behind her while Twoearle clung to her neck for life was far from the romantic image she had imagined. With her transformation enhanced speed, Grasper ran until the sounds of distant battle faded away and they were crossing from the city centre to what seemed like the suburbs.

Row after row of two or three story domed buildings with shimmering transparent blue energy fields around them in place of the usual picket fence or hedge you'd see on Earth. Inside each yard we're normal things you'd expect to see like gardens and children, but rather than playing or doing anything the children were just sitting around reading or watching cars pass. Even the dogs only looked half awake. They didn't even show any interest at all in the superhuman display of a relatively thin and unathletic woman running at speeds faster than a moving vehicle while also carrying another woman larger than herself.

Despite the creepy dead gazes of elemera drained children and pets, it was a nice neighbourhood that Aisana would have imagined herself and Twoearle moving into one day if life hadn't taken a different turn.

"Stop here, stop!" Twoearle yelled, and Grasper slowed her pace.

"What's wrong?"

"We'll be a lot easier to see from orbit out in the open." Twoearle pointed up at the sky. "Not to mention just from the air. I mean your friend can fly, right?"

"That monster is definitely not my friend."

"Okay, so if she's not that then what on Locale is she?" Twoearle began to look about like she was searching for something.

"I don't even know. She's just a really evil psychic that Ultimagil keeps around in case any Tailwarriors prove to be too troublesome."

"Well, I guess that's us now, then." Twoearle looked at Grasper. "Does that include you now? Are you still with the Elemerians?"

"Oh, hell no." Grasper shuddered. "I'm definitely on your side now."

"R-really?" Twoearle sounded surprised.

"What?"

"I just didn't think it'd be that easy."

"They have clone farms! Where they keep former elemera drained Warriors alive for as long as possible to harvest as much of their genetics as possible!" Just the thought of such torturous confinement made Grasper's heart pulse with near panic. She wasn't claustrophobic, but the idea of being trapped in a dark space until the day she died, unable to move her limbs or cry for help was suddenly a very real possibility and utterly terrifying.

"...What the fuck…" Twoearle murmured. "Really?"

"Yeah, really! So no, I'm not with the Elemerians anymore, spreading the love of glasses across the universes is not worth that." Then Dark Grasper noticed the look on Twoearle's face. "Are you disappointed?!"

"What, no?! Well, a little. I mean, convincing you to change sides was easier than I expected is all. I thought it would be a bit more dramatic, maybe a hug, maybe some tears."

Grasper blinked once in disbelief.

"I-It doesn't matter!" Twoearle blushed. "Anyway, if you can get me to an electronic's store I can-"

What sounded like a massive explosion went off in the distance, loud enough that they both flinched.

When they turned they saw a distant black figure flying towards them surrounded by orbits of cars, street signs and pieces of people's houses. Even a few bystanders were caught up in the psychic field, limp and flopping around gruesomely.

Grasper went pale, and threw Twoearle over her shoulder before sprinting away.

"Get us to an electronic store! I can rebuild the catapult key and take us to my old secret- Lookooooouuuut!"

Grasper threw herself to the side just in time as an entire house slammed into the path in front of her. The structure collapsed under its own weight, crushed like an empty can against the concrete as debris flew everywhere. Even as Grasper tried to move around the obstacle she had to leap back to avoid a crumpled up ball of metal that she vaguely recognised as a former car being fired into the ground in front of her. The sidewalk exploded and Grasper was thrown off her feet.

When she came to, she was on her back, the glasses missing from her face and her ears ringing. She sat up and looked around, or at least tried to, but something incredibly heavy was pressing down on her, and it took her a moment to realise she couldn't see whatever it was...

Oh, god.

"Hello, Grapser." Black's soft voice was just barely audible over the ringing in her ears.

Immediately, Grasper summoned her scythe only for it to be yanked out of her grip and thrown away.

"Sorry, I've already been a bit delayed and I have more appointments to keep after this one." Black feigned sympathy, and Twoearle screamed as she was dragged over to hang upside down in the air in front of Grasper. "You said you were former lovers, but I think I can see a bit of a spark still there."

"Wait, please! Don't hurt her!" Grapser yelled and struggled against her invisible bonds, but they just contracted even more tightly and she gasped with pain as bands of something dug into the flesh of her arms.

"Oh, I won't." Black replied. "If you promise to me you'll be a good girl."

"I promise!" Grapser immediately agreed, her vision blurring with moisture. She nodded as quickly as she could. "Whatever you want! Anything!"

"Anything?"

"Yes!"

"Anytime I want it?"

"Yes, so please just don't hurt her." Grasper blinked and looked towards Twoearle.

"Wow." Black intoned vaguely, and looked towards her scientist captive. "You know, I think she really loves you."

Twoearle drew in a long shuddering breath. "I know, I know. I'm sorry, Aisana. I'm so sorry for what I did."

"Well, just like I promised." Black smiled and stepped back.

Twoearle dropped to the ground, and flinched as she waited for the other shoe to drop. When nothing happened she looked at Black with confusion.

She merely arched an eyebrow. "I promised, didn't I?"

There was a long beat as Twoearle looked at Grasper, and sniffled, wiping a dirty sleeve over her tears before she smiled. Then there was a loud crack as her head spun a hundred and eighty degrees. The body sat there for a moment, neck broken and suspended in place by Black's psychic powers, before she let go and Twoearle slumped over onto her back, head drooping unnaturally.

Grasper was frozen, unable to scream or move.

"I didn't hurt her at all. See? Completely painless, like I promised."

"Noooo. No-no-no." Grasper crawled over to the body. "No, please, no-no. God, oh god."

"Mission accomplished." Black continued, and stepped over to pat her on the shoulder. "With her dead, the Warriors are defeated. Fenryrgildy will be pleased."

"Twoeeeearle!" Grasper screamed. "Twoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeearle!" She fell forward over the body, unable to hold herself up as her face contorted with misery. Tears and snot ran down her chin and dropped onto Twoearle blouse as she sobbed.

"Now, now, it's not all bad." Black gently pat her on the back in a mockery of comfort. "Because you promised to be good, I can just not tell Fenryrgildy about your brief change of heart, and we can all go back to being good friends, right?"

Wracked with sobs, Grasper dropped her transformation and became Aisana. "Why… why?"

"Hm, I can see you need a moment to compose yourself." Back stood back up and floated into the air. "For now I have pistols at dawn to attend. Don't go anywhere, I'll be back." With that said she rocketed back off towards the city with a crack as she broke the sound barrier.

"Oh, oh, god, Twoearle." Left alone, Grapser could only whimper uncontrollably. "Twoearle."

All over the street, a number of onlookers watched curiously as she sat there in misery.

After a few moments a middle aged man in a sweater vest with a moustache ambled over.

"Hey, so I'm not trying to be rude, but are you and your alien friends done here? We're just kind of sick of the way you keep breaking our stuff."

Obviously, Aisana ignored him.

After a moment he shrugged and turned away. "Alright, never mind then. Better get your lady to a hospital before she stops breathing."

The statement was so baffling that Grasper looked up at his retreating back before gazing back down at Twoearle's limp form. Hands trembling, she put her fingers on her generous chest and gasped. There was pressure, as Twoearle's lungs filled and compressed, breathing in and out steadily.

Pulse pounding, Aisana turned the head over so the neck sat straight, and saw Twoearle's face contorted in agony, but moving and with eyes gazing back at her.

"'ospital." Twoearle breathed out.

"H-how?" Aisana murmured, barely able to believe her own eyes, and she quickly rubbed the tears out of them. "How can you still be alive?"

"Glitch." For a fraction of a second she smirked, then she winced. "Really hurts. Hospital."

"Right, right-right-right." Aisana quickly searched about for something to carry her on so she could lay flat on her back, but gave up. With no other choice she picked Twoearle up in her arms, cradling her neck like she was a baby before running off.

* * *

I'm the baaaaad guy.

...

Du~du du-dududu.

Edited by Enid.


	47. 47 Meet the Antiwarriors

The room had a receptionist, a console operated by touch pad, and lots of chairs. There were dozens of rows of plastic seating filled with many different people of all shapes and sizes. They were of many different ages, and ethnicities with all kinds of injuries and illnesses. Some of them were coughing and sweating as they sat calmly, while others were missing limbs or had pieces of wood and fragments stabbed into them.

Despite the obvious ill health and pain they were in they didn't groan or complain at all or even get mad. They all sat around, patiently waiting for a doctor to come see them. Even the children didn't seem at all restless. In all, it was a lot like a busy emergency room from Earth, and at the same time nothing like one.

When Dark Grasper kicked open the door, she easily became the strangest thing in the room, and yet most of its occupants barely seemed to care. She immediately rushed over to the reception carrying Twoearle, where the woman behind the register didn't even glance up from her mobile game.

"My Friend's neck is broken, she needs to see a doctor right away!"

"Does she have health insurance?"

"What?! I don't know!"

"Do you have health insurance?"

"No! Why does-"

"Alright, just take a seat and a doctor will be with you as soon as one's available and they feel like it."

Dark Grasper scowled, before walking past the receptionist and kicking open the door leading into the hospital. She walked down the hall until she found a man with a white moustache in a white coat and blue scrubs.

"My friend needs help." Grasper said to him. "Get her the help she needs, or die."

He looked her up and down slowly, glancing at his clipboard then at his phone screen to check the time before sighing. "Whatever. I think there's plenty of empty beds in the maternity ward, come this way." He waved a hand and began to lead them away.

Oh, thank god. Grasper nearly cried with relief as she walked after him.

The doctor took out his phone and dialed a number. "Hey... Yeah, it's me... Cancel the rest of my appointments for today… I know… Also maybe call the police? I think I'm like a hostage now?"

"If you call the police I'll just kill them too!" Grasper snapped.

"...Yeah, actually don't bother them. I'll just treat it like a day off, anyway."

If she had any problems with Grasper's methods Twoearle didn't even mention it.

* * *

The pain in Erina's neck only got worse as they continued. The access tunnels of the ship were seemingly endless, and she had to keep her head low the entire time for fear of bumping against the ceiling or a jutting grate. By comparison Red was doing fine, moving briskly down the halls and only occasionally glancing back to check on his friend's discomfort. This was far from what Erina had in mind when she heard the plan was to board an alien spaceship.

Rubbing her neck, she asked, "Are we getting any closer?"

"According to this we're only about fifty metres away. Even with some detours we should be there in just a few minutes." Red answered over her shoulder.

"Oh, thank goodness, my neck is gonna be bent like this for days. I was about to tear down the walls!"

There was the sound of a loud bang, and an axe head smashed its way through the wall between them. A frightened squeak escaped Erina and she instinctively transformed, only to find Yellow's much larger, more heavily armed and armour frame smooshed up into a constrictive crouch as she struggled to find room to breath.

The axe was ripped back, and through the hole it made they heard a voice cry, "They're in here!" It sounded strangely feminine for an Elemerian.

Then what looked like a series of metal knives burst through the wall, before clasping down on it. Yellow realised that those weren't knives, but claws just as the entire wall was pulled away and tossed aside with the sound of shrieking metal.

Whatever they had been expecting to see wasn't what they saw, as Tailyellow and Tailred gasped at the sight of a half dozen girls in tailsuits and twintails.

All of them were beautiful in distinctive ways, from the short and devilish looking purplette in the front with a scandalous suit that exposed her black panties, to a tall, tanned girl with dark brown hair in a midriff bearing, high tech armoured battle skirt that showed off an impressive physique. They even had their own red warrior with wavy twin tails that fanned out behind her like a pair of wings. A few of them had colours in common with existing Warriors, with blue, pink and red members, and also an orange coloured standing way in the back.

All of them had amazing twintails, and one look at Tailred's face was enough to tell Yellow that the smaller Warrior was completely star struck.

"You all look amazing." She murmured with religious awe.

The purple one and the brown one exchanged looks, smiling faintly. "Thanks. Tailred, right?"

"You know me?" Red squirmed with delight. "Is this like the part where you invite us to join you? Like a team up? Like the Revengers?!" She held both hands to her cheeks and said breathlessly, "Are we joining the Twintail Revengers?!"

"I mean…" Two of the new comers glanced at each other and the brown one answered. "Kinda? It's a little like that?"

"Yeah, just like in any good superhero crossover first we have to fight." The purple girl cracked her knuckles. "So first we beat you up."

Red's had been excitedly squirming on the spot, but suddenly froze. "What?"

"Then once you can't resist anymore we capture you, drain you of your elemera and send you off to the clone farm for harvesting." The brown one explained.

The purple one continued. "And then they'll clone you thousands of times until eventually one or maybe two of your clones will develop twintail elemera, and join us as Anti-Twintail Warriors."

A look of complete horror overcame Red's face.

"So yeah." The brown one shrugged. "I guess we really are a superhero crossover, just with some extra steps."

"'Anti-Twintail?'" Red repeated, sounding utterly heartbroken. "But you're all so beautiful."

Purple blushed at that and scratched at the back of her head with her claws, while Brown just shrugged sympathetically and an axe materialised in her hands. "Sorry."

Red barely managed to get her sword up in time to block the attack, before pushing back against the taller antiwarrior and leaping out into the corridor to counterattack. Her flaming sword spun down in a perfect arc, a product of her practice with Aika, threatening to cut directly into Antiwarrior Brown, when suddenly another Antiwarrior, Pink, stepped between them. Rather than blocking with their weapon, they simply lowered their head, letting their long hair dangle into the path of the blade.

With a horrified gasp and a pale face, Red just barely managed to halt the momentum of her strike, sparing the precious pink twintails. Antiwarrior Pink looked up, smirked, and clubbed the much smaller girl in the face with the heavy end of what looked like a long wizard's staff.

Red was thrown through the breach in the access corridor wall, just as Yellow stepped past and unloaded on the Antiwarriors with her rotating plasma casters. The attack was intercepted by an orange Antiwarrior who's only weapon was a shield on her arm that was able to summon a barrier that all the plasma fire bounced off harmlessly.

Antiwarrior Pink stepped out from behind her and raised her staff, launching a line of magic or something in a line of black and white that melted through the floor as it burned towards Red and Yellow. Red was able to throw herself to the ground in time to avoid it, but Yellow was caught in its path and hissed at the burn she was left with as one of her rotating guns fell into two pieces.

"How can you do this?!" Red cried in despair, stepping in front of Yellow protectively. "As lovers of twintails, why? For the love of all that's good, why?!"

Brown rolled her eyes. "Don't make it sound so dramatic." The head of her axe began glowing brightly with amber light, and Yellow realised with terror that she was charging up some kind of special attack.

"Get down!" She yelled, pulling Souji to the floor just as Brown swung horizontally.

There was a massive, roaring boom as a perfect line was cleaved through both the wall of the room the Antiwarriors were standing in and the access corridor. Through the open slash mark, Yellow spied what looked like an empty space behind it and blasted at the weakened bulkhead with a rocket pod. The wall gave way to reveal what looked like a massive elevator shaft. Without hesitating, Yellow clutched Red to her chest as she dove through the hole, activating the ribbon Elemera to fly upwards only to jerk to a halt as something wrapped around her ankle.

Yellow looked down to see a blue Antiwarrior on the other end of some kind of electrical lasso, and quickly drew her plasma pistol to blast at her.

Antiwarrior Blue yelped and let go, losing her weapon as Yellow zoomed off with it still caught on her foot, stinging her continuously until she kicked it loose with her other leg.

"Look!" Red shouted, pointing downwards at an elevator door.

On Yellow's hud she saw that the mass of elemera they had been searching for seemed to be on the other side. Without hesitating, she flew towards it, blasting it open with her rocket pod, and flying through the smoke and debris to arc up and hover.

"Jackpot." Yellow murmured at the sight that greeted her.

Being from Earth, both Warriors had half expected Ultimaguil to store their stolen elemera in something like shipping containers, but even without that familiarity, it was easy for them to identify a cargo hold when they saw one. All the orbs were being suspended in the air by some kind of antigravity technology. The orbs of millions of people from Planet Locale all gently drifted near across the roof of the massive chamber in bouncing roiling arcs of some kind of electricity. The vast scale of it was staggering, but after a few moments… underwhelming?

"Where's the rest?" Red was the first to notice there were not nearly enough orbs. Mere millions where there should be billions. "Locale had even more people than Earth!"

Before Yellow could answer, she barely saw the movement of something mirrored in the back of Tailred's metallic sword and swerved to the side to avoid a harpoon on the end of a chain that would have impaled her. With no way of firing back effectively while still holding onto her passenger, Yellow simply let go, and Red let out a startled, "Eep!" As Yellow spun to open fire on her attacker.

Antiwarrior Orange dove to the side to evade a hail of plasma and rocket fire shredding the ground behind her, but wasn't able to keep ahead of the arc of Yellow's fire. An explosion picked her up and threw her towards the wall. She flipped mid air and landed against the bulkhead with a crouch, digging her harpoon into the bulkhead to avoid falling.

* * *

At the same time Yellow was firing on Orange, Red was watching as the other Antiwarriors emerged from the open elevator shaft. Antiwarrior Red emerged first and used her shield as a springboard for Brown to launch herself acrobatically into the air. As Brown spun, her axe head began to glow with light and Tailred had to desperately throw herself backwards to avoid the arc of energy that cleaved into and through the deck below her. With a half scramble, half roll, Red came back onto her feet and unleashed a great arc with her sword. Rather than make any effort to block, Brown dropped her axe to spin it upwards, aiming it towards Red's chin, while tilting her head so her left twintail fell before the path of Red's sword.

The Twintails! Red panicked, slowing her arms to halt her sword, only for the heavy weight of the axehead to crash into her chin.

She was thrown backwards, stunned, as Brown followed through from her attack to bring her axe down on Red's airborne body. The Twintail Warrior smashed into the deck, cratering it with the force of the landing, and gasping in pain. The inertial dampeners in the twinsuit has absorbed most of the damage in the blow, but as Red sat their dazed she realised some of her teeth were now sitting on her tongue, and a different shade of red was now pooling into her hair, crimson welling up from her chest and jaw.

Brown clicked her tongue. "I know it's a dirty way to fight and all, but it's not like we're gonna just take it easy on you."

Red slowly sat up, head spinning and found herself directly in the middle of five antiwarriors, their long, perfect twintails surrounding her on all sides. A perfect, beautiful cage made of the softest, shampoo scented hair, cornering her from every direction.

"... I can't fight you." Red realised, a horrible sense of helplessness welling up inside her. "I can't damage the twintails."

Brown smirked. "We know. Two twintail elemera? That is some intense love."

"You'd have an easier time cutting your own fingers off than trying to convince yourselves to harm even a single hair on our pretty little heads." Purple gloated with a sadistic giggle.

On all sides, the girls closed in on Red little by little and she panicked. One step at a time, her world shrank as she was made a prisoner by her own love.

"No, please! Stop! Please, don't do something this cruel with twintails!"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as her arms were seized. She struggled to break free, her tiny limbs flailing ineffectually as she was forced onto her back. With her limbs pinned to the deck, Red could only watch helplessly as Brown circled around to stand just above her face.

She twirled her massive axe between her fingers once, before resting the blade against the struggling Warrior's neck with a flourish. The fingers of her other hand slowly wrapped around the base of the weapon's haft.

"Did you know that even if you die while transformed, you'll be fine in your base form?" Brown explained. "If I cut off your head, all that will happen is your suit will be overloaded and you'll go back to being just a human. Not a pleasant experience for you, sure, but I always like finding out if you Twintail Warriors look the same in your base form as you are transformed." She raised her axe up in preparation for the downward stroke.

"Ultra canon!" A voice shouted from above.

Recognising the sound of a power attack, all the girls instinctively scattered, looking up in search of a great glowing blast of raw power. Instead they saw absolutely nothing.

As they were distracted, Yellow blasted between them with the flight module, scooping Red up into another princess carry and zooming off.

"Red, you can't fight them." Yellow shouted as she wove between gently spinning formations of Elemera orbs. When there was a room she lowered to the ground before deactivating the module. She skidded across the ground on her feet before coming to a stop, her heels smoking from the friction. Yellow lowered Red so she was standing on her feet, and pressed the old Ribbon Elemera into her tiny hand.

"Yellow-"

"No listen." She interrupted. "You can't fight them for the same reason you could never really fight us. You love twintails too much, beyond any amount of sense. You love them as much as I love you." As bold as that statement was, Yellow didn't even seem to notice and barreled on. "So take this and run! Finish the mission, and I'll hold them off."

Red opened and closed her mouth, thousands of objections dying on her lips as the truth of her words sunk in. "There's seven of them."

Yellow just pointed a finger up at the massive, swirling cloud of millions of Elemera orbs hanging overhead. "Yeah, well I'll have plenty of ammo."

After a moment Red nodded, even as her eyes grew damp. She sniffled once as she inserted the ribbon orb into her wrist module. Looking back up at her friend, who was about to sacrifice herself like this due to Red's own failings, searched for something to say, and only came up short. She couldn't think of anything.

She didn't have to. Yellow seized the much shorter Red by the back of her head, and pulled her into a kiss. There was no tongue, but it was more passionate and lingered for much longer than just a peck on the cheeks, and totally wide eyed with shock, Red could only stand there

* * *

After a moment, Yellow pulled away and opened her eyes, blushing faintly. "Now go!" She spun Red around by the shoulder and smacked her on the bottom to get her moving.

She watched Red fly off just long enough to make sure she was really leaving, before turning to face the approaching Antiwarriors.

"Rearguard action?" Antiwarrior Purple sneered. "Oooh, so heroic!"

Yellow grit her jaw and summoned up her guns.

Brown simply rolled her eyes and readied her axe. "This won't take long. Girls, smash her face in!"

There were two roars as the Antiwarriors charged, and the lone Warrior's guns spat out glowing blue glory.


	48. 48 Draw!

The sound of fighting faded behind Red, the explosions and gunfire muted by the many halls of the Capital Ship. Strangely, no aliens barred her way anymore.

There wasn't a sign of even a lowly Ultiroid, let alone a guildy or even an officer. Open doorway after open doorway revealed nothing, but abandoned offices, rooms of arcane machinery and black screens that displayed nothing.

Conveniently there were little signs offering directions at every junction that Red was able to follow. They were written in Elemerian, but the suit was able to translate and she soon found the bridge.

Completely abandoned.

"What on Earth?"

Suddenly there was a flash of light as the central monitor turned on, and an Elemerian appeared on screen. He had little pointed ears at the top of his face, and large fangs in his maw. Around his shoulders he wore a furry mantle of some kind.

"Greetings, Tailred."

She scowled back at him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Fenryrgildy, the master of this fleet."

"Come and face me!"

"And risk this invasion force failing?" Fenryrgildy scoffed. "I saw you coming to the bridge and evacuated ahead of time. You could try to find me if you want, but I rather doubt your chances in a ship of this size."

Red clicked her tongue with frustration.

"Now be a good little girl, and wait there for the Antiwarriors to catch-up to you." There was a click and the screen cut to black.

Great, now what? Red searched about for something the might tell her where Fenryrgildy was, when her eyes came to rest on the directions sign that led back the way she came. There was a training bay, officer's wards, and at the very bottom…

"'The brig?'" Red murmured. Maybe if she could find someone there who wasn't loyal to Ultraguil, she could find directions to where Fenryrgildy might be hiding?

With no better choices that she could think of, Red set off.

* * *

It hadn't been too difficult for Tailblue to escape that storm water drain, though she emerged back into the sunlight smelling of mud and with a horrible taste lingering on her tongue. If being burnt alive in nuclear fire hadn't hurt Aika, then some drain water was unpleasant but not really a problem.

Following Black wasn't difficult at all either. The trail of collateral damage the Antiwarrior had left behind was staggering. Buildings toppled, cars sent flying, humans crushed and tossed away like soft balloons filled with chunky tomato and beef soup. The complete disregard for life and property would have been more disturbing if the people in the middle of it seemed like they even cared.

As Blue ran past, she swore she heard a woman explain to her own children that their father had died with about as much emotional distress as if she was explaining they were due for poor weather tomorrow.

Blue could only shudder. The damage the Elemerians inflicted on people was truly nightmarish, in a way that made Black's petty destruction seem childish in comparison.

Though the trail of ruin did raise some questions about Black's powers. Was she fully in control of them, given this level of collateral damage? That didn't quite make sense. Back when they were fighting, Black had displayed a remarkable degree of precision and fine control when she launched a ball of concrete that would have intercepted Aika mid air had she not avoided it. Not to mention that she had somehow detected Blue's surprise attack, and even reacted fast enough to that she had been able to intercept and avoid it at least somewhat.

Whatever the exact nature of Black's power was, she clearly didn't have to concentrate much at all to use it. She was easily able to affect almost any object she wanted to almost any degree she wanted just by glancing at it. The fact that Black was able to fire the cars and concrete balls at Blue from behind her head meant that she had a means other than eyesight to judge distance and trajectories.

Maybe some kind of sense of touch accompanied her control? It would explain how she knew Blue was coming if she'd felt it. Almost like how a spider can sense when something steps onto its web?

There just wasn't enough information to go off, but power like that was obviously the real deal. If it wasn't for the elemera modules she had, Blue wasn't sure she would be able to win. Even with all her strength and speed, there wasn't a lot Aika could do against an opponent who could simply pick her up and toss her about at will without ever giving her the chance to get within striking range at all.

Such thoughts played across her mind as she chased after the Antiwarrior until a dark figure suddenly flew overhead.

Black decelerated quickly, before turning around to look down at Blue from above. She smiled. "Ah. How dogged of you."

If she was back here, then that meant… She had already caught up to Twoearle.

Smirking with self amusement at the expression on Blue's face, a round dark coloured shape emerged from behind Black's back before falling to the ground with a hollow plastic clatter. Instantly, a hollow pit opened in Blue's stomach as she recognised it as Twoearle's helmet.

"I've completed my mission, so now we can play a little bit if you like." Black's eyes never wavered, looked away or even blinked. She absolutely drank in the sight of the white knuckled clenching of Blue's fist. "I would have liked to have our little throw down earlier, but you know how it is. Business before pleasure and all that."

"...You completed your mission." Blue repeated.

"If it helps, she didn't suffer." Black offered with mock condolence. "It was quite instantaneous for her. Certainly took Grasper by surprise."

"You," Blue ground out through grit teeth, "Have no idea what you've done."

"Hmmm." Black tapped a finger against her lip. "I think I do."

With a snarl Blue went to step towards her, only to find her feet pinned to the ground by psychic force. The same look of complete self satisfaction dominated Black's face as a car crashed into Blue from the direction she wasn't looking. Except unlike last time, Blue didn't even flinch.

Black's eyebrows shut up in surprise as the Warrior grabbed the crumpled, broken frame of the car that had bent around her and took a slow, purposeful step forwards. Black frowned at that, and Blue suddenly felt more and more weight pressing into her shoulders and biceps. Invisible cords wrapped around her body, binding her to the road and holding her in place, squeezing tightly and crushing her from all sides.

Despite the pressure of it cracking the road underneath her, Blue jerked her arm and shoulder forward and felt the psychic bindings on that side of her body snap.

Black gasped in shock as Blue serged forwards in an explosive burst and threw the car. At first she tried to deflect it, but it was too heavy and travelling too fast and with a snarl she was forced to manoeuvre herself out of its path. The car struck a large apartment block behind it, smashing into it with enough force to completely collapse the building.

Black scowled down at Blue, who glared back up and summoned her spear.

"I'm impressed." Black admitted after a moment. "You know, you're very strong, but-"

"Enough talking."

Black faked a pout. "But that's my favourite part." She floated up and away, turning to briefly survey the building Blue had just destroyed. Dozens of bricks and and chunks of debris rose into the air and she turned to face her ground bound foe. "What's your-"

Her eyes widened and she just barely ducked aside as Blue's spear broke the sound barrier. With a bang like a gunshot, it drew blood from Black's hip as it passed, cutting through her armour like it wasn't even there, but doing little more than superficial damage.

With a snarl in her face, Black sent her collection of debris flying past her and curved in wild arcs towards Blue with sonic cracks of their own. Ducking and weaving, the Warrior bent twisted through the swarm before leaping upwards to land on a piece of wall that was mid flight. She felt Black's psychic powers try to pin her down, hold her in place, but Blue was too strong and moving too fast. She leapt from that piece of wall straight towards Black.

Seeing the obvious arc of her trajectory, Black went to duck aside, but Blue reached out and snatched her by the ankle! The Antiwarrior felt that grip like iron pressed on the joint and was pulled with whiplash inducing force towards the ground. Seeing the concrete rising up to meet her and unable to halt her own momentum, she tucked herself into a smaller shape and applied her full strength to the road. What would have been a powerful blow as she crashed into the earth was reduced to very little as Black was merely bruised and dirtied rather than destroyed.

Blue pulled back on the ankle she was holding, tugging the Antiwarrior towards her for another attack, but then she felt the pressure that Black was exerting suddenly change shape. Rather than try to pry open Blue's grip, Black twisted her leg inwards, moving with the pressure applied by those fingers and slipping out of the hold. She spun in the air, not bounding to the ground only for her eyes to widen in surprise as her face moved directly into the path of Aika's fist!

The ideal punch doesn't actually throw its enemies away, as them being picked up and flung like that diffuses a lot of the power. Despite how squarely the blow landed, Blue was disappointed by its effect. Black was flung through the air away from her, spinning out of control until she righted herself, bending with the arc of the strike until she was able to rise up and turn to face Blue once more, her nose merely bloodied and not broken.

The realisation came to Blue that if she was to win this battle she was going to have to find a way to pin her enemy to the ground first.

Black began to say something, but stopped at the strange taste in her mouth. Feeling something warm on her upper lip, Black touched a finger to her face that came away crimson. She stared at it, shocked and disbelieving, before looking up to narrow her eyes hatefully at Blue, her face distorting with rage.

"You can't exert enough pressure to stop me or even really hurt me." Blue smirked.

"Yes, I can." Black spat out a gobbet of blood. "It's just a matter of where."

There was no warning at all as Blue was suddenly grabbed by her twintails and pulled right into the air.

In any normal fight, pulling hair was seen as pathetic and fit only for children and schoolgirls, however Blue immediately realised the sinister danger behind his particular hold. Her long twintails stretched down past her waist, usually, but now the tips of her tails were being held far above her head and far out of her reach. There were no muscles in her hair, no ways for her to move or flex it free of that telekinetic grip. Her scalp pulled painfully taut, Blue dangled helplessly struggling as Black turned to survey the road.

A dozen lamp posts were ripped from the concrete and twisted together into a long, thick column of metal. Black checked over her handiwork over once or twice, before turning back to her foe. "It looks like you're right. You're simply too tough for me to merely crush you without exercising just a tad bit of creativity."

Blue eyes widened as what looked like handprints seized one end of the improvised column, and pulled it back.

"Simple tools are the best way to produce greater force with less effort. Behold the 3rd class lever, or as you might know it, the bat."

Black swung her weapon with her power, and the outer end of it spun towards Aika at speeds far greater than its bottom. It really was an incredibly simple way for Black to use her power, but nonetheless deadly. For the same reason that hitting a man with your fist might not kill him, but striking him with two by four might, Black's normal level of pressure might not have been enough to crush Blue, however this giant club might just do the job.

Except... "Aura pillar!" A blue bolt of energy lanced out from Aika's wrist and into the twisted metal column, freezing it in place just before it hit the Warrior.

Without hesitating, Blue seizes the suspended piece of metal and used her grip on it to pull her hair free from Black's hold with grit teeth. At the top of the column forged from lamp posts was a bunch of small light bulbs that the Warrior seized and crushed to sharp shards in her fist before throwing them at Black.

Each tiny piece of glass moved with a velocity that would embarrass a rifle round, and Black threw up a concrete slab she lifted from the footpath to block them. She had little choice. The shards were too small for her to see and intercept with her power, and were spread in such an arc that she wouldn't be able to dodge easily. Each fragment strug the concrete like it was fired from a gun, throwing up dust and shattering the slab, but failing to pierce it.

Black lowered her shield to find a foot flying towards her. Instinctively she raised her arms to protect her face, but the power of the strike wasn't aimed at her head.

Blue's foot came down on Black's shoulder, the force of it breaking her psychic power and throwing her towards the ground. She smashed into the bare earth she had taken her concrete from, gasping with pain as her back hit the soil just as Blue landed on top of her.

With a furious snarl, the Warrior brought her fist into the rib of her target, at last able to bring her full strength to bear. The sound of it was incredible, like a thunderbolt and an earthquake, and the armour around Black's torso bent and warped inwards. The Antiwarrior gasped with pain as blood flew from her mouth, and Blue raised her fist for another blow.

A blow that never landed.

Something hit her in the stomach, blinding pain running up her spine and throwing her free of her pinned foe. Blue rolled once as she hit the ground, and before coming to a stop. She stood up, looking down to see a black bladed dagger with a white handle sticking out of her belly.

For a moment Blue boggled, wondering where it came from, and looked up to see Black rising back into the air, more daggers forming in her fingers before being lifted into formation around her.

There were hundreds of them.

This entire fight so far, Blue had assumed that Black's weapon was her telekinesis, and had forgotten that every tailsuit came with a weapon. Her own trident, Red's flaming sword, and now she recognised Black's growing swarm of daggers. She floated there, her perfect, pristine and delicate features marred by the blood covering her face. The banded armour she wore was bent and twisted out of shape, with the obvious shape of knuckles printed into them. Her gaze showed as much hatred and anger like before, but now they held a hint of fear.

This entire time, the Antiwarrior had merely been playing with her food, but now that she was injured, Black was finally going to start taking things seriously.

Grimacing with pain, Blue pulled the slick dagger out and threw it away, before raising her hands to take a ready stance.

"Die!" Black snarled, and her blades surged forward in a swarm that blotted out the sun.


	49. 49 Ball Pit

When Yellow told Red to run and so boldly kissed her on the lips, she had felt for just a moment like she could do anything. Maybe defeating these Antiwarriors was possible. With the power of love flowing through her she rushed into battle, guns blazing, and was immediately almost destroyed.

"Aura pillar!" A voice among the antiwarriors cried, and Yellow only barely ducked aside to avoid an orange blast of energy that would have rendered her helpless.

No matter how impressive Yellow's arsenal was it barely meant anything when all she could do was run and dodge and only very rarely return fire. Her last stand had so far been less glorious and more frantic.

Two of the Antiwarrior's in particular, Pink and Red were a horrible nuisance. Actually, 'nuisance' didn't quite capture it, a more accurate term would be 'major threat'. Antired's shield was able to deflect any attack Yellow made, and with her magical girl staff, Antipink was completely safe and able to continuously fire great magenta beams that scored black lines of melted, blackened metal across the deck. It was those two more than the others that kept Yellow on the run. Close combat would be one thing, but with the constant ranged attacks from an impervious enemy, Yellow could barely return fire at all.

She didn't even have the ribbon elemera to make evasion easier anymore. Hopefully Red was putting it to good use because Yellow really could have used it now. There wasn't even much cover for her to hide behind.

All the elemera orbs in the storage space were held in suspension by some kind of electrified anti gravity field, so there was almost nowhere on the floor for Yellow to hide at all. The only furniture in the room were tall, thin, black metal spikes that adorned the room and sent great arcs of the anti gravity lightning up into the mass of Elemera.

A harpoon from Antiorange sailed through the air towards Yellow, and she was quick to duck aside, turning to fire back one with one hand, but stopped short at the multiple colours of antiwarriors bearing down on her from different sides. Without hesitating, Yellow bolted, her thick armour plates clattering as she ran.

Yellow knew she had to zigzag lest she be hit by one of the antiwarrior's ranged attacks, but if she moved too slow, brown or purple would catch up to her. Yellow's bulky plasma casters and rocket packs would do little good against those nimble bladed weapons once she was inside their reach.

If only she could just get her hands on some of those Elemera. Amidst those countless orbs there had to be some she could use! The problem was they were all so far overhead. In the face of each gravity spike there was some kind of computer screen to operate them and probably select individual orbs, but Yellow definitely didn't have the time to fiddle with a computer screen right now! What was she supposed to do instead, blast them down?!

…

"Oh."

An idea popped into her head. A dangerous one. Individually, each elemera orb might not weigh much, but all of them? In the end the choice was between certain defeat and a dangerous gamble.

Rotary barrels spinning up on her plasma caster and rocket pods extending, Yellow dropped to her knees and turned to face her pursuers. Seeing her obvious attack all of them immediately scattered out of the path of fire, but they were never her targets. Scathing balls of plasma and missiles trailing smoke shot past them and into the anti gravity spikes all over the room.

Pieces of machinery and metal were sent flying in showers of sparks and explosions, and the arcs of antigravity electricity the spikes were launching all stopped. The Antiwarrior's, having seen what happened could only gape at Yellow's reckless self destruction before the countless millions of elemera orbs fell.

Acting quickly, though wide eyed with panic, Antired threw up her shield towards their descending doom and screamed, "Vermillion BARRIER!" There was no doubt it was her special move, and the name gave away its effect pretty clearly. A bright red glimmering dome spread through the air above her, an obvious source of protection from the falling Elemera. All the Antiwarriors rushed towards her looking for shelter. Antired was standing still, entirely focused on saving herself and the rest of the team, and all the other Antiwarrior's were too busy running to notice all of Yellow's weapons taking the form of a canon behind her.

"Voltic BLASTER!" She cried unleashing her own special move.

The still target stood no chance. Tailyellow's body crashed into Antired's directly, wreathed in power and curled into a ball. Her Vermillion Barrier collapsed immediately as she was thrown off her feet to land fifty metres away, completely unconscious.

Immediately, Brown aimed her wrist into the air and desperately cried, "Aura pillar!"

"No! You idiot, what have you-" Pink shrieked at Yellow, just as the avalanche buried all of them.

* * *

No matter what anygildy said on the matter, Orchidmantisgildy was still a genius and his future was bright. At the moment the shining light of that future was obscured somewhat by the darkness of the ship's brig, but it was only a matter of time until he escaped. Admittedly, the containment bubble they had him held in was impervious to any internal assault he could muster, and utterly without blemish or feature for him to exploit.

Even so, despite these conditions, Orchidmantisgildy knew that one day he would escape and take his revenge on all who had wronged him. Those Twintail Warriors on Earth, the Antiwarriors, Fenryrgildy, and especially the Ultiroids who were his jailers!

The stupid little creatures were utterly sadistic towards the superior gildy who they finally had power over. They mocked him relentlessly by running their rubbery rears against his bubble, bouncing it around to use as an oversized and slow drifting volleyball, or just blaring foghorns and bright lights at him whenever they thought it would be funny.

No matter, Orchidmantisgildy seethed to himself quietly. Because he had a plan. If there was no way to force himself out of the bubble from the inside, he would just need someone else to do it from the outside.

Even without his elegant cravat, Orchidmantisgildy made for a beautiful princess. His ability to shape shift allowed him to create the perfect creature of his fantasies: long blonde twintails held up at the top of her head by cute little buns, crystal blue eyes and thin limbs. The temptation was always to aim for perfection, but that was a mistake. Something too beautiful didn't look real, and so his princess had an obvious bruise on the cheek, a perfect suggestion that she had been slapped and needed a knight in shining armour to save her.

Now, all that Orchidmantisgildy had left to do was wait for some foolish gildy to wander into the brig, and he would have his freedom. So he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Without any ability to tell the passage of time, Orchidmantisgildy had nothing else to do but perfect his disguise. He had the appearance just right, but what about her speech and mannerisms? And of course she would need a suitable back story. He took to talking to himself, just to develop an appropriate voice for his princess.

"Hello, Princess Serena."

"Oh, um, h-hello Orchidmantisgildy." Serena stuttered back and blushed.

"This tower seems awfully bare. It must feel terribly suffocating up here."

"Oh, well, um, it is a bit." Serena admitted as though she was confessing something horrible. "N-not that I'm ungrateful, I just… sometimes I wonder what the rest of the world is like outside my books?"

"Oh, Serena my dear, that's nothing to be ashamed of at all." Sir Orchidmantisgildy responded with a chuckle. "But at least you have your animal friends for company."

"Well, yes." Serena blushed. "They're lovey, but they can be a little pushy someti-"

The sound of footsteps coming towards her cell forced Orchidmantisgildy to snap his mouth shut. They weren't the pounding claws of a large Elemerian beastman coming closer, but the soft tapping of… a human?

Had one of the Antiwarriors come?

Princess Serena's head turned in the direction of her approaching visitor, and quickly pulled out a few nose hairs to help summon up some water to her eyes. The painful sniffles that caused only made her crocodile tears seem more realistic. The final touch was curling up into a ball at the bottom of her bubble as though she had collapsed onto herself in sorrow.

The sound of footsteps paused outside Orchidmantisgildy's room before coming inside.

"No!" Princess Serena choked out bravely. "I won't tell you anything! You Antiwarrior's can do your worst!"

"Who are you?" A familiar voice asked.

"Who am I?" Serena repeated and looked up.

Words could not begin to describe Orchidmantisgildy's surprise when it wasn't one the Antiwarrior's who arrived, but one of the Twintail Warriors. Being the genius thespian that he was, he didn't let his recognition show.

Serena wiped a tear away. "Y-you're not one of the antiwarriors."

"I'm Tailred from planet Earth."

"I'm Princess Serena from planet…" Crap, he hadn't thought of that. "Uh, Dirt. Planet Dirt. Please, you have to get me out of here!"

Red immediately searched around the room.

"I think that console over there has the controls." Serena pointed her delicate little finger.

Immediately Red disabled the containment bubble, and Serena fell to the ground in a heap with a cute little, "Eep!"

"Are you okay?"

"I am now!" Serena smiled, fresh tears running down her cheeks at the feeling of the floor under soft little feet. "You saved me!" She pulled Red into a hug. With her breasts squished up into the smaller girl's face, she raised one hand to where the Warrior couldn't see it and began to summon her scythe, a wicked smirk appearing on her face. "Thank you so much."

"No problem." Red answered back, blushing at the skin contact and looking upwards and only saw Serena smiling down at her brightly. "First we'll find you some clothes, but then do you know where Fenryrgildy is hiding?"

Serena's scythe blade, which had slowly began drifting towards Red's neck paused. "Fenryrgildy?"

"Yeah, I need to defeat him to save my planet from this invasion force."

That... just happened to line up perfectly with Orchidmantisgildy's plan for revenge. And if Tailred were to perish tragically in battle against the admiral, that would also line up perfectly with his plans.

The scythe dissolved into fog and disappeared, and Serena smiled down at her new best friend. "I don't know, but I'm sure we can find him together!"

* * *

The elemera storage room had been transformed into this universe's largest ball pit. From one end to the other was nothing but hundreds of metres of hills and dunes formed by the semitransparent forms of all the different elemera forms.

With panic forming in her gut, Antiwarrior Brown sat up and surveyed the scene. Her suit was easily able to identify every single ball that she could see, but there were so many different varieties of elemera that she had to shut down the input so her vision wasn't completely overwhelmed by the constant stream of titles. Carefully, like she was afraid of accidentally setting a bomb off, she raised her communicator to her lips.

"Girls, check in."

No reply.

Brown swallowed. The crushing weight of the avalanche had to have overwhelmed everyone else's suits. They were either dead, or unconscious and out of energy at the bottom of the pile. It would depend on how much damage they took after their suit's protections failed. The only reason Brown wasn't with them was she had saved herself at the last possible moment.

She took a moment to breath out, leaning back against the pile with relief as she did. The only consolation was that Yellow's situation was certainly the same or worse than-

Suddenly, orbs were flung everywhere as Yellow pulled herself to the surface like a diver coming up for air. To Brown's horror, Yellow had her plasma pistol in hand.

The axe she summoned was just barely in place to deflect the first shot, but she needn't have bothered.

The two of them were on a giant pile of spheres that immediately gave out under their moving weight and the two of them began to slide under the pile. Brown rolled over so she was flat on her belly, defusing her weight across a wider surface area and preventing herself from falling any deeper.

Seeing her success, Yellow copied the motion so the two were laying down in front of each other. Almost face to face, they stared at each other until Brown's eyes turned slowly to the gun still in Yellow's hand. Slowly that arm began to stretch out to point the weapon at her.

With no other choice, Brown threw herself forward in a half leap, half crawl to grab the gun and force it upwards away from her. This action had an unsettling effect on the pile, and both her and Yellow began to sink again until they froze.

The two of them were locked in that position, silently glaring at each other with the gun pointed above them, both of them struggling to control the weapon while keeping their legs and torso as still as possible.

Yellow's eye darted from the weapon in her hand to the Antiwarrior's face, before dispelling the handgun in a flash of blue. Seeing this, Brown's eyes widened before she immediately reached out and wrapped both her hands around her enemy's throat.

Face turning purple, Yellow calmly reached to either side of her and grabbed two elemera orbs, before inserting them into her wrist module.

In her blurring vision a little notification popped up that read, Compatible elemera detected. Would you like to combine them? Warning, unknown what the effect of combining two elemera might be.

"Yeeghss." She choked out.

The one she had grabbed with her left hand was a gothic lolita elemera orb, and the one with her right was for fang girls.

Immediately Brown cried out in pain, as energy flowed from her fingertips and into Yellow. With a yelp she let go of her hold, while the Warrior sucked in a breath of air.

Vampirism. Yellow realised the two elemera's had combined to let her drain other's energy, which was good because her own energy was depleting at a rapid rate!

Stretching her arms out, she grabbed Brown's face and the larger girl shrieked, thrashing in pain as she tried to break free. Her movements unsettled the ball pit, and she began to sink again, her legs and hips falling under the surface even as she desperately tried to pull free of Yellow's touch, but the hands she used to grab her wrists just became another point of contact between them. The energy flowed out of Brown even faster as Yellow grew stronger and stronger.

Eventually Brown's struggles slowed, her thrashing becoming weaker until her hands fell to her sides and she went limp. With a mental command, Yellow severed the connection between the Goth Loli elemera and the Fang Girl one, and breathed a sigh of relief even as she felt strangely rejuvenated.

Quickly she scanned about, until eventually she spotted the one orb in the pile that she was after and reached out to snag a brand new ribbon elemera.

* * *

AN: Thanks to Enid for editing.

Also, the combining Elemera effects module I added ages ago sure took a long Damn time to pay off didn't it?


	50. 50 Radio Discipline

Normally it was other people who hid from Aika's wrath, and yet here she was crouched behind a dumpster even though she was transformed into Tailblue. From where she was concealed, she could see the mirror of a car parked on the street, and in that reflection she could see down the road to where a dark shape floated around, searching. As Black searched she flipped cars, shattered windows, smashed apart bus stops, and even tore the roof off a small building in her efforts to find her enemy.

Floating in formation around Black were hundreds of daggers, poking outwards away from her, and circling in constant motion. To try and get close to her would mean that Blue would have to pass through the wall of slashing blades. Not only that, but there were a few dozen daggers at the centre of that formation that the Antiwarrior was using like projectiles. The moment she saw her enemy, or anything that even looked like her, she would fire them with such velocity that they passed through steel and concrete like butter. Not only that, but she adjusted the blade's trajectories mid flight so they would circle around cover and cars and even loop back on Blue if she dodged them. About the only defence she had was to hit them hard enough with her spear that she knocked them out of Black's psychic grip. Unfortunately there were so many blades and they were moving so fast, some of them slipped through.

Tailwarrior Blue was smart enough to know when she was in trouble. At this point in time, Blue was pretty sure she could destroy just about anything she could put her hands on, doubly so when transformed, but that was proving to be quite the caveat. If she could just manage to close in on Black she was sure the battle would be hers, however that was seeming more and more improbable as time went on. In addition to the stab wound to her lower abdomen, she now had half a dozen painful gashes on her arms where she had to batter away blades that had been flying right at her and now her wrists and hands now had a slick coating of sticky, dark, browning crimson.

Never before had she been so conscious of touching her face. The suit had been able to stop the bleeding pretty quickly, but too many more light injuries like that would quickly become dangerous.

In exchange for her suffering, the damage she had managed to inflict back was absolutely nothing at all. Now that Antiwarrior was taking things seriously she was done floating closer to mock her foe or gloat, but instead stayed at a safe height, hundreds of metres in the air. She was well protected by distance, her own impressive reaction speeds, and a deadly bladed shield. Black was still clutching her ribs though, and grimaced in what seemed like serious pain. When Aika had managed to land that blow she had felt something _crunch_. No doubt walking would be a struggle for Black, but unfortunately she didn't seem to need to walk at all.

The worst part was Blue knew Black was still holding back. If Antiwarrior's suits could summon weapons like Twoearle's suits could, then that meant they almost certainly shared other things in common. Things like Aura Pillar and a power attack, aces in the hole that Black was holding in reserve for if she needed them.

About the only thing Blue thought she might have going for her was endurance. Her incredible level of stamina bestowed on her by her Glitch might actually be the biggest advantage availab to her. If she could just out last Black, then that would be a win, wouldn't it?

Alas, it was not to be. The Antiwarrior's psychic powers seemed to be literally effortless to her, which cemented Blue's theory that it was a product of a glitch of some kind. Whatever need it could possibly be satisfying Blue had no idea, but that level of power and control was absolutely incredible. At this exact moment she was micromanaging hundreds of individual objects without even looking at them, while at the same time moving herself comfortably and with agility through the air.

The only thing Blue had really gotten out of their exchanges, other than cut, was information. Watching carefully, she was starting to get an idea of how Black's powers worked and was starting to believe these observations were the only way she could devise some kind of counterplay.

Firstly, Black could only grab things that she could see. If she had them she could move and direct them almost as she pleased, but every time she picked something up her eyes moved to it first.

Secondly, Black had a sense of touch with her psychic abilities. If something in her hold was moved or brushed up against anything, she would immediately look at it.

Thirdly, her psychic grip always had a shape of some kind. Some of the times she had grabbed a wall or a piece of metal there was a hand print left behind, and other times she left a pinched shape at each end of a bent pipe or just a hole in whatever she grabbed. The shape wasn't always the same, but everything she grabbed showed some kind of mark where it was held by her powers.

Fourthly, they could be broken. In a raw contest of strength, Aika was easily able to overpower that psychic grip, and the moment she did it disappeared like it was never there. If she could grab one of those daggers then there would be nothing Black could do about it, but Blue only had two hands where the antiwarrior seemingly had hundreds.

Keeping those four things about Black's powers in mind, just about the only thing Blue could think to do was catch her by surprise at range. Except there was a problem with that, too. Looking back, Blue remembered clearly that moment she first attacked, when Black was standing over Twoearle. Her back had been turned, and the attack had been faster then sound so there was no way she could hear it, but somehow Black had still sensed it coming. The only explanation Blue could think of was it relating to her powers somehow. Either way, it was a theory that needed to be tested...

With her spear in hand, Blue carefully watched through the car mirror as the antiwarrior ejected all the shelves and the books that were on them from a bookstore. Her back was turned as she peered down through a hole she tore in the roof, not wanting to risk getting to close in case Blue was inside.

Breathing out slowly, Blue stood up and crept slowly around the dumpster to the edge of the alley. Through the mirror she saw that Black was done with the bookstore and returned to the middle of the street. The antiwarrior turned her head around slowly, searching for some evidence of where Blue was. Her gaze passed over Blue's hiding spot and passed on, slowly turning in place until her back was showing.

Moving quickly, Blue spun out of the alleyway and took sight on her target nearly three hundred metres away. She pulled her arm back, spear ready and thumb raised to help judge distance, before whipping it forward to fly. There was a sharp crack as the weapon broke the sound barrier, but Blue ignored it as incredibly, Black somehow jerked out of the spear's path and turned to look in her direction.

So that confirmed it. Black had some kind of sixth sense, apparently.

That thought was all she had time to think of as the swarm of hundreds of daggers all turned and fired at her. Blue threw herself back into the cover of the alleyway as the tiny blades tore through the building next to her, blasting bits of concrete and left behind gaping bullet holes like shots from a machine gun. The only way to escape was to hide, so Blue smashed right through the wall of the building opposite and ran through several rooms as the daggers passed through all about her.

She ran through room after room, sending beds, television's and tables l scattering before emerging briefly back into the sunlight between two buildings. However, the volume of weaponry being launched at her hadn't decreased at all as the daggers continued past Blue to tear through the building in front of her. More daggers sailed in from the sides, along with cars and street lights, and Blue had to leap up to avoid being hit.

She landed by bracing her feet against a wall and pushing off it to jump and go through a window on the third story of the building she just passed through. Her feet pounded against the hardwood floor, pieces of timber flooring cracking as she ran out into the hallway and over to an external window. Suddenly, her stomach lurched as she felt the floor give out from under her. She staggered, forgetting the window completely as she tumbled, rolled to her feet and charged shoulder first into and through the wall in front of her.

Behind her she heard the sound of a roar as the entire building collapsed and a massive dust cloud was thrown up. She squinted her eyes as she searched about for another hiding place, as the sound of another building collapsing sounded nearby.

Then another shortly after.

Was Black destroying the entire street? Whatever she was doing, it was great cover for Blue as she sprinted through the cloud and away to hide again.

* * *

"Alright, so your neck is broken." The doctor read from a chart. "So I have no idea why you're not dead."

"Thank you for that diagnosis." Grasper snarked at him.

The man just shrugged and looked towards Twoearle. "The X-ray shows that your spinal cord just kinda stretched and didn't break, which is not normal, and the bone broke cleanly, which is also not normal. The surgery team realigned the damaged disk in your neck and put some pins in it to hold it together for now. I don't know much about your alien physiology or whatever, but I'm guessing your bones will grow back in time. I've put your neck in a bracer to stop you moving it around too much."

"Will she recover?"

"How the hell should I know?" The man replied. "Look, it's the best I can do on short notice in an entirely unique medical situation. If you want to find a hospital and a team that can do better, I encourage you to leave."

Grasper glared at him until he left the room.

"Stop." Twoearle groaned at her.

"Don't talk, you'll strain yourself!" Grasper gasped, turning to hover over her.

Currently, Twoearle had a large metal and plaster contraption around her neck that held her head in place. She was laying on her back in an upright position, with more braces around her shoulders to stop her from moving her neck accidentally by raising her arms. The whole thing was incredibly uncomfortable, but that was the least of Twoearle's worries right now.

The room they were in had three beds for different patients, but all of them other than hers were empty. If she had to guess, the loss of everyone's elemera had damaged their libidos and no one was having sex anymore. Raising a child was a long and difficult process, and without love to sustain that relationship, no one on Locale could be bothered to go through with it. Eventually the whole world would just die from their infertility.

Between the depressing realisation that her people would go extinct and having her neck nearly broken by that friggin' psychotic psychic, Twoearle wasn't sure why she ever wanted to come back here.

In the distance the two of them could hear what sounded like Earthquakes and repeated gunfire. Looking out the hospital window they could see massive clouds of smoke rising from the distant megatropolis, though they couldn't see the source directly.

"Is Blue still fighting her?" Grasper asked, disbelieving.

"TV, on!" Twoearle said aloud, and the one screen in the room flickered to life. It was

Mounted on the wall, so all three patient's could watch it, though there was no one else here right now.

"Switch to breaking news." Grasper told the machine, and it flickered to images of fire fighters trying to dig people out of rubble in the city. The death count was in the tens of thousands so far, and would have been higher if the area hadn't begun evacuation before the 'battling aliens' arrived.

At the rate the two were going, Blue and Black were well on their way to flattening the entire urban centre. Even if they were mindless husks, the sight of so many torn up and mangled bodies was horrific, even when they were all in body bags.

"Give me my helmet." Tweoearle said to Grasper, who held it out to her. "Bring it to my mouth." Grasper did so. "Communicator, contact Tailblue."

* * *

This _bitch._ Twintail Warrior Blue. This scummy, god fucking damn little _rat_ just wasn't dying. It ran, hid, ducked, dived and occasionally waited. This _rat_ wasn't supposed to do those things. It was supposed to fuckin' _die._

Her chest still hurt. The ribs were broken. Superficial damage. The pain would disappear when she transformed again.

But that wasn't the goddam point.

_Her_ chest wasn't supposed to hurt. _Her_ ribs weren't supposed to break. _She_ wasn't the one who was meant to beg, or hide, or bleed_._ It was an upset. An outrage.

The order of things had been turned around.

To be hurt was failure. But to bleed? Rats were the one who were supposed to bleed. And burn. And crack, and wail.

And she was not a goddamn rat!

The sound of her teeth grinding was drowning out other sounds, so she stopped it. She had to be cautious. This rodent was Clever. It waited for chances. It used its powers carefully. It was strong, and fast, and had eyes that didn't show fear.

They were supposed to show fear, that's why they were a rat!

She would find it. She would squeeze it. She would hear it _begging_, and then they would see who was afraid! Then they would see who _should_ be afraid.

It wasn't her. She didn't feel fear. She would never be afraid of the rats again.

Because she wasn't afraid. She didn't need to be afraid. After her ascension there was _nothing _that could ever make her afraid, or jealous again.

No matter how strong a rat was, or fast, or _smart_, in the end it was just a _fuckin' Clever Rat._

Suddenly there was a beep, and she turned to her communicator. The channel scanner had detected people talking.

"Tailblue, can you hear me?" A sick, pained voice asked. A familiar one.

"Yeah, I have to be quiet, though."

"Can you lead Black out of the city? This fight is getting out of hand."

"Negative. Are you and Grasper clear?"

"No, we're still in the city. Black caught up to us and broke my neck, but apparently that wasn't enough to kill me."

...That resilient little Lab Rat. She would just have to see what it actually took to kill it.

The Lab Rat continued. "Grasper got me to a hospital, and I'm not sure how much I can move."

Hospital? She looked around until she spotted a hollow rat, filming her with its phone.

Pressure was easy to apply and a blade was just pressure applied to a small area. It hadn't been sufficient to hurt the Clever Rat, but against this little hollow one it was more than enough. It's head went one way and it's body another, but it's phone fit snugly into her hand.

A map app was easy to find with her universal translator, and with a quick search, soon all the hospitals in the city were highlighted. There were a dozen of them.

She clicked her tongue, but then noticed one closest to where she broke that resilient Lab Rats little neck. It had probably been taken there.

She looked around, disappointed that she wouldn't immediately get to finish the Clever Rat, but The Mission was what mattered. Many things could be forgiven. But the thing that never could be was Failure. Failure was where those lesser than her went to die.

As she turned and launched herself towards the hospital, she was certain that wasn't relief she was feeling. It would be weak of her to be afraid of a rat, after all, and she was definitely not afraid of any rodent.

Not even a Clever one.

* * *

**AN: Twoearle, you messed up!**

**Thanks to Enid for pre-reading.**


	51. 51 Change of Heart

That naive and trusting fool, Tailred, hadn't the faintest clue about the dastardly scheme Orchidmantisgildy was brewing in his heart. The plot that Tail Red was walking into would be so perfect, so ingenious that generations later gildies would look upon it and tremble at its incredible brilliance. Orchidmantisgildy would be famous for Millenia, and would have retold the tale countless times to crowds of adoring and envious juniors.

Oh, Red was going to be so crushed, he just couldn't wait.

It was now time for the first step of his brilliant scheme: coming up with a brilliant scheme.

It might take a while, but he was sure he would figure something out shortly.

"All these halls look the same to me." Red murmured confusedly, looking about. "How can you tell where we're going?"

"Uh, i-intuition." Serena, or Orchidmantisgildy to those who knew her best, explained. After all, why would an abducted princess know her way around an Elemerian war ship?

Apparently that answer wasn't what Red wanted to hear. She stared at the princess for a long time, before saying gently, "You know, if we're lost you can tell me. I promise I won't be mad."

"'Lost'?!" Serena repeated, offended. "I would never get us 'lost'. What kind of a fool do you think I am?!"

Red cringed. "Right, sorry."

"Why, mine is the most brilliant mind of them all! I could never possibly lead us astray!"

"Y-yeah, you're right." Red timidly touched her fingers together. "I shouldn't have asked."

"I dare say you shouldn't even have thought that!" Orchidmantisgildy snapped. He then fell silent when he realised he had broken character. Serena coughed once into her hand before saying, more timidly, "I mean, I'm sure it's this way."

"R-right." Red agreed.

Serena quickly turned and led the way, glancing at the signs she passed to make sure of the direction she was heading in. Not that she was unsure of herself or anything. Yes, the security room was just up ahead. Of course it was.

Serena rolled her eyes, scarcely able to believe that for a moment she had been made to doubt herself.

"From here we can find Fenryrgildy." Serena said over her shoulder, failing to watch where she was going.

The door to the security office swung open and a large, horned Elemerian leapt out, swinging a club at the inattentive princess. The weapon hit Serena and flung her a dozen feet back into a bulkhead, just as Red yelled in shock and summoned her fire sword to drive it through the alien's torso. It died quickly, knocking Red back a step with its explosion, and she hurriedly turned to find Serena was… just fine?

The princess rubbed her head where she was struck with a grimace on her face, but otherwise seemed unharmed.

"You're okay?"

"No thanks to you." Serena hissed, glaring up at her. "You distracted me, you fool!"

"Sorry." Red apologised, but didn't feel like she was to blame. She opened her mouth to ask how Serena possibly could have survived that, but closed it after a moment. Afterall, the Princess might also consider that rude and she didn't want to be yelled at again.

Serena climbed to her feet, and flared past Red at the open door of the security room. "Come on then, I've had more than enough of this treatment already."

"Uh, okay." Red meekly followed her inside.

* * *

It had been an unpleasant task, dragging the Antiwarriors out of the ball pit. Firstly, it was enormous. If Yellow hadn't had a general idea of where they were before it fell, she never would have stood a chance. As it was, she had to carefully blast a hole into the wall where the elevator shaft was and slowly but carefully roll the orbs into the open abyss while gradually digging downwards just to have any chance of finding them.

With that, she was able to steadily unearth the unconscious girls. To her relief, the first five hadn't been badly damaged enough that the suits had been forced to end the transformation, and so they were okay. The last one, Antiwarrior Red was badly injured when Yellow found her, with obvious broken bones and a battered face, though she was at least still breathing. The power attack had damaged her so badly that the suit had untransformed her just in time to be crushed by the avalanche. The sight of the broken, mangled body sticking out of the pile had opened such a pit in Yellow's stomach that she had no idea what she would feel about it later. For at least as long as wshe was in her transformed state the euphoric focus it provided protected her from the worst of it.

She had moved the six of them to the level above the elevator and broke their transformations by damaging their bodies. Then, while they were still unconscious, she confiscated their tailsuits and tied them up one by one using electrical wire she tore from the walls. With them bound up tightly and moved out of harm's way, all that was left was for Yellow to deal with the orbs that were in storage.

Somehow.

Whenever she happened to figure that out. The sheer number of them made moving the orbs difficult, especially without heavy equipment. Did the Elemerians have something like a bulldozer she could use? Or a crane. Actually, thinking about it, that was probably what the gravity spikes in the storage room were for.

And she had destroyed those.

Yellow chewed her lip as she tried to find a solution. Maybe if she could find a way to communicate with Twoearle, the scientist might have a suggestion. Even Aika or Souji might have some ideas, but Yellow knew she wasn't an especially creative person. In school, Erina had always been better at memorisation then innovation. Not that, that was anything to be sad about, it was just a different skill set to the one she needed right now.

If only she wasn't trapped on this stupid space ship, she could-

Oh.

Hm…

Yellow looked across at the unconscious Antiwarriors, an idea forming in the back of her mind. The first thing she'd need would be a way to carry them… In the storage room, she found a tentacle elemera orb fairly easily among the masses. Soon enough the defeated antiwarriors were suspended in the air by moist lemon scented tentacles connected to Yellow's wrist module, while their bracer's were kept in the suit's storage space.

The feeling of the damp on their skin began to rouse them. One by one they all panicked as they came to and found themselves bound in the grip of some monster. Well, all except the former Antiwarrior Red. She remained limp and unconscious.

"Transform!" The former Antirwarrior Brown yelled, struggling and failing to pull free. "Transform!" She repeated when the common phrase didn't work.

"Uh, I've taken your bracers off, sorry." Yellow tried to explain, but none of them seemed to listen. They kept struggling and shouting all talking over each other.

"Girls!" Yellow shouted. "Girls, I said listen!"

There was abrupt silence as all the terrified Antiwarriors stared at her at once.

"Good." Yellow breathed out in relief. "Now tell me where the bridge is."

"Let us go!" One of them answered.

"Yeah, put us down!"

"This is, like, super gross."

"You're slime is getting in my hair!"

Only the untransformed red and brown antiwarriors stayed silent, because the former was unconscious and the later seemed to be considering her situation carefully.

"What kind of a friggin' freak does this?"

"Look at what you did to Maria, you monster!"

Under the torrent of verbal abuse, a faint blush dusted Yellow's cheeks, and she felt her pulse start to climb. The sound of the yelling continued until the antiwarriors ran out of breath, and in the silence that followed Yellow thought of asking the girls if any of them wouldn't mind stepping on her.

That was until Brown spoke up. "What do you want from us?"

"Uh," It took Yellow a moment to understand the question, struggling to focus on what was being said over the pounding of her own heart, and a lurid fantasy involving leathers and candle wax. "The bridge! That was it, I need you to take me to the bridge."

"Like we'd ever do that for you, bitch!" One of the girls shouted.

"Yeah, we'll never help a fugly whore like you!"

"Ugly slut!"

This continued for another few moments until the rest of them fell silent and Brown spoke up, again. "If you let me down, I can take you straight there."

Immediately the other antiwarriors shrieked at the betrayal, while Brown stoically bore their insults. The abuse they held for her was vastly worse than anything they had aimed at Yellow so far, including allegations about the shape and size of things Brown would periodically fit inside herself, and vivid descriptions of her smell and body hair. Eventually, in their cacophonous swell to talk over each other, they ran out of steam and there was silence for a moment.

"Could you shut them up already, please?" Brown rolled her eyes.

After considering her suggestion for a moment, Yellow quickly came to the conclusion that something would need to be done if this conversation was ever to go anywhere. More tentacles shot of the wrist module, and all the antiwarriors except Brown shrieked as the slimy, organic material wrapped around their mouths until it was impossible to talk. They gave muffled cries of distress, and some of them bit down furiously while other just cried helplessly. Yellow wondered if Red would be willing to do this for her sometime...

"If you let me down, I'll take you straight to the bridge." Brown repeated her offer.

It wasn't exactly like she could realistically stand a chance of overpowering Yellow, so the twintail warrior gently let the girl down. They stood across from each other, and Yellow watched as the girl took a handkerchief from her pocket and cleaned the lingering moisture of the tentacle from her wrists, before bending down to dab at her ankles.

When she stood back up at her full height, Yellow realised that even untransformed, Brown had a full head over her. Not that it would help her much in a fight.

"It's right this way." Brown said, and began to lead the way, but stopped at the sound of Yellow's voice.

"Wait, how do I know I can trust you?"

Brown paused, then turned. "What none of these idiots realise is that we just failed. Badly."

At that particular word, all the antiwarriors immediately became silent, and when Yellow glanced she saw they had all turned pale. "I don't understand." She said.

"It means that if the Elemerians ever get their hands on us again, we'll be dead, or worse, Yamato finds out." She swallowed, looking down. "So if you promise to take me and the girls out of here, I promise I'll do anything you want."

It wasn't even a moment before Yellow agreed. "I promise."

Stress visibly left Brown's body, and she breathed out, before straightening up and starting to walk away again. "Okay, so the bridge is this way."

Yellow watched her for a moment before hurrying after her, the bound antiwarriors trailing through the air.

They walked in silence, Brown using a hand mirror from her purse to check around corners as they went. She was as good as her word, and soon Yellow found herself standing on the bridge of the star ship. It was completely abandoned and all the screens were dead.

"Alright, so what's next?" Brown turned to her.

"Do you know how to pilot this?" Yellow asked her.

"Sure." Brown shrugged. "Or at least I know the basics, but all the controls have been powered down, the ship won't move unless we can find a way to get it started again."

Shoot. There went Yellow's plan. She breathed out through her nose as she tried to think of an alternative when the ship's intercom crackled to life.

"Yellow!" Red's voice came over it. "I see you on the cameras! We're in the Security Room."

* * *

Red stood behind Serena, watching the terminal over her shoulder. It displayed an image of the ship's bridge where Tailyellow stood, with several prisoners trapped behind her and another woman whom Red only vaguely recognised as the untransformed Antiwarrior Brown standing next to her.

"You did it, you beat them!" She cheered for her friend.

"Yeah, barely." Yellow agreed. "Did you find their leader?"

"No. The ship's practically abandoned! I'm looking for him over the ship's security systems and there's just a skeleton crew on board. I think he's abandoned the ship."

"Fenryrgildy? He was never on the ship." Brown answered. "It was a trap, we were supposed to defeat you guys, and if we couldn't he just plans to blow us up."

'"What?!"' Red and Yellow both shouted at the same time.

"Then why was all that elemera stored here?" Red demanded.

"It wasn't. Most of it's still on Locale, they just buried it all in lead lined bunkers to make it undetectable. The elemera that's here is less than one percent of the total stockpile. It was just bait to lure you all in."

Yellow took a moment to digest that, before speaking up. "Do you have a way to let him know that you won and he can come back?"

Brown nodded. "There's a gildy named Buffaloguildy, and he has to give us the all clear."

Red's mind turned to a few minutes ago when Serena was attacked by a large, furry Elemerian with horns, and felt a cold prickle on the back of her neck. "Uh oh." Buffaloguildy was already dead! She was just about to explain that to the others, when Serena reached forward and muted their mic.

"I can take care of that." Serena told Red. "I can disguise myself to look just like him."

She raised an eyebrow at that, looking at the tiny princess.

Serena just sighed before standing up. A bright light washed over her, covering her from head to toe, and when it disappeared a nine foot tall alien stood there in her place. "See?" She said in a bass rumple.

"Awesome!" Red cheered, before grabbing the mic. "That's no problem, we can handle that on our end."

"Oh, that's great. I have a plan!" Yellow said aloud. "We lure Fenryrgildy back here with the all clear sign, then we seal the exits, set this ship to autopilot into the sun, bail out and get picked up by Pink before it does."

There was a pause after her declaration.

Red was enthused. "That's a great plan!"

Brown opened and closed her mouth, before shrugging. "As long as you promise to take us with you, fine."

"Sounds like we're all in agreement." Yellow said.

Red said, "Yeah, we'll get started on our end and see you soon."

Serena flipped off the com and turned to her. "Brilliant plan! I can't think of how it would possibly go wrong."

* * *

"Just, uh, one question." Brown asked Yellow.

"What?"

"I thought only two of you came aboard."

"Yeah?"

"Then… what did Tailred mean by 'we'?"

* * *

AN: Sorry about the late update, I lost my job and stuff has been tense. Everything's back to normal, look forward to more weekly releases.

About this chapter: Souji was never the brightest, and the problem with armies maintained by coercion is that they always follow the path of least resistance. Brown isn't stupid enough to hang out for her own torture/execution when presented with literally any alternative.


End file.
